THE SEINE AND ITS BRIDGES.--THE MORGUE.
The Various Bridges over the Seine--Their Histories--The Morgue--Some
Statistics.
Of all the Paris thoroughfares the most important, in a commercial
sense, is the Seine, which enters the city from the east to flow out in
the direction of the south-west. The Seine, however, does not play in
connection with Paris the part of the Thames in connection with London.
On the Seine no large ships are to be seen above or below bridge; and
until a few years ago the attempts periodically made to establish a
service of passenger steamers, such as we have on the Thames at London,
were usually discontinued after a brief experimental season. Wine, wood,
stone, and other merchandise is sent down the Seine towards Havre at the
mouth. But the Parisians, as a body, make little use of the Seine,
except for bathing purposes, and then only during the warm weather, when
the numerous swimming baths established on the river are largely
frequented.
The Seine enters Paris after receiving at Conflans the waters of the
Marne. The first bridge beneath which it passes, beyond Bercy, is
continued on either side as a viaduct, and is connected with the
external or girdle railway known as the Chemin de Fer de Ceinture.
Constructed in 1858, when the Second Empire was at the height of its
popularity it received the name of “Napoleon III.”
The next bridge, the Pont de Bercy, which dates from 1835, was
originally a suspension bridge. In 1863 it was replaced by the present
bridge, constructed in stone, with five elliptical and very graceful
arches. To the bridge of Bercy succeeds the bridge of Austerlitz, whose
name connects it with one of the greatest battles of the First Empire.
Begun in 1802, it was finished in 1807, and was called the bridge of
Austerlitz in memory of the important victory gained on the 2nd of
December, 1805, by Napoleon, over the arms of Austria and Russia. When
in 1814 the allied armies were in possession of Paris, some observation
was made to the Emperor Alexander of Russia by a time-serving French
official as to the name of the bridge, which, it was suggested, might be
changed. “I do not mind the name,” replied Alexander, “now that I have
crossed the bridge at the head of my troops.” More sensitive, or at
least more irritable than the Russian emperor, Blucher took umbrage at
another of the Paris bridges being called, in commemoration of the great
Prussian defeat, bridge of Jena, and really wished to blow it up. He was
dissuaded from this project by the Russian emperor, who, according to an
anecdote more or less veracious, said that if the Prussian marshal
thought seriously of carrying his project into execution, the emperor
would take up his position on the bridge and perish with it.
Under the Restoration the name of the bridge of Austerlitz was really
changed. It was hence officially designated Bridge of the King’s Garden,
but continued in general parlance to be called by its original name. A
little below the bridge of Austerlitz the Saint-Martin canal pours its
waters into the river; and not many yards lower down the Seine met
formerly the island of Louviers, on which there were no habitations, but
only warehouses for wood. The narrow channel which separated this island
from the right bank of the river was filled up in 1847, when, in a
geographical sense, the island ceased to exist.
At a short distance from what was formerly the Île Louviers, the Seine
throws out on the right an arm, which, before rejoining the main stream,
forms the island of Saint-Louis. In the seventeenth century this island
was augmented by being joined to two smaller ones; the island of Cows on
the east, and the island of Notre Dame (the property of the cathedral)
on the west; and the triple island received the name of Île Saint-Louis
in honour of the great king. The island of Saint-Louis communicates with
the left bank, from which the main stream separates it, by the foot
bridge of Constantine and the bridge of Latournelle. The bridge of
Constantine owes its name to the town taken by the French in 1836. It is
only available for pedestrians. The ancient bridge of Latournelle,
constructed in 1614 on the site of a still older one, was in wood. After
being several times destroyed in this form, it was in 1656 reconstructed
in stone. In 1831 a band of thieves who had robbed the royal library of
many valuable medals, threw their booty from the Pont de Latournelle
into the Seine, whence the greater part of it was recovered by divers.
Close to the Pont de Latournelle is the Pont Marie, of which the first
stone was laid in 1614 by Louis XIII. and Marie de Medicis. The bridge,
however, is said, according to a somewhat improbable statement,
generally accepted by the historians of Paris, to owe its name, not to
the queen, but to Marie, a well-known builder of the time. The next
bridge, as we continue to descend the stream, is the Pont Louis
Philippe, the date of which is indicated approximately by the reign
under which it was built. Begun in 1833, it was finished in 1834, but
since then has undergone many restorations and modifications. The bridge
of Saint-Louis, which joins the two islands, replaces the second section
of the original Louis Philippe bridge, at one time known from its colour
as the Red Bridge.
We now reach the celebrated Pont Neuf, which with its two arms connects
the island of the city, otherwise island of Notre Dame, with both banks
of the Seine. The island in question is the ancient Lutetia, the germ of
modern Paris. The number of habitations on this kernel, this core of the
French metropolis, becomes smaller every year. Before long it will be
occupied only by its ancient historical edifices, with a café-chantant
at one end of the island and the Morgue at the other. Some who begin
life at the former will finish it perhaps at the latter establishment.
As to the other bridges, it may be sufficient to mention some of their
names; which possess for the most part historical significance, and for
that reason have, in many cases, to suit historical circumstances, been
changed. The bridge of the Arts owes its name to the institute on the
left bank, which it connects with the Louvre on the right; and this
bridge has retained its original name since the date of its
construction. But the National Bridge, as it was called when it was
first built under the Republic of 1789, became, after the proclamation
of the First Empire, the bridge of the Tuileries; and at the time of the
Restoration, Pont Royal. The Solferino bridge, dating only from 1860,
the year after the great battle of the French against the Austrians, has
retained its name without intermission.
The Pont de la Cour has, like the Place of the same name, been called
successively Pont Louis XV., Pont de la Révolution, Pont Louis XVI., and
finally (since the Revolution which in 1830 placed Louis Philippe on the
throne) Pont de la Cour. The bridge of the Alma dates from 1855, the
second year of the Crimean war.
Having now disposed, somewhat summarily, of the Paris bridges, let us
say a few words about that mournful establishment, the Morgue, to which
a desperate leap from one of the bridges has so often led. The Paris
Morgue is situated at the back of Notre Dame, close to the bridge of
Saint-Louis. Reconstructed in 1864, it replaces the original one in the
form of a Greek tomb, which was built in virtue of a police edict under
the First Republic. Something of the kind, however, was known long
before, and in ancient chronicles a morgue, where dead bodies were
exposed, is spoken of as far back as the early days of the seventeenth
century. In its existing form the Morgue is a one-storied building, with
two wings, and with slabs of black marble in two lines, for the
reception of twelve bodies. The keeper of the Morgue is supposed, by
the writer of a novel choke-full of horrors, to have dwelling rooms in
this dismal abode; and the perverted imagination of the author
represents him as giving an evening party to his friends in close
proximity to the sepulchral chamber where the remains of so many unhappy
victims are waiting to be recognised by their relatives or friends. The
number of men who find their way to this place of ill omen is, according
to the statistical tables on the subject, far greater than that of the
women. Thus, up to the age of twenty-five, the number of male occupants
of the Morgue was found, during a period of years, to be 515 as against
115 female occupants. Between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five,
among 1,242 occupants, 1,050 were men, and 192 women. From forty-five to
fifty-five, there were 599 men, and fifty-eight women.
[Illustration: AUSTERLITZ BRIDGE.]
What are the kinds of death which feed the Morgue? From 1826 to 1846,
out of 1745 cases of apparent suicide represented at the Morgue, there
were 1,414 deaths by drowning, 114 by hanging, ninety-eight by
fire-arms, forty-six through the fumes of charcoal, fifty-six through
falls from heights, sixteen through sharp weapons, eleven by poison,
seven by crushing beneath vehicles, and 4 by alcohol. About two-thirds
of the bodies exposed at the Morgue are never recognised.
There is so much that is beautiful and elevating, so much that is
curious and interesting, to be seen in Paris, that a visit to the
Morgue--by many persons thought indispensable--should surely, by persons
of ordinary taste and feeling, be regarded as time ill-spent. It ought
to be sufficient to read of it in Jules Janin’s strange novel already
referred to.