Promenade Petite Ceinture

The Promenade Petite Ceinture follows the path of a circular railway that once formed a ring around Paris. Construction on this thirty-two kilometer track began in the middle of the nineteenth century under the direction of Napoleon the Third and Baron Haussmann. It served as a critical logistics loop that connected the city's major train stations and facilitated the movement of cargo without forcing heavy freight traffic through the bustling center of Paris. At the height of its operation during the universal exposition of nineteen hundred, the line transported thirty-nine million passengers. As the modern metro system expanded, the railway became obsolete and eventually ceased passenger service in nineteen thirty-four, leaving the tracks to settle into a long period of quiet abandonment.