Gare de la Bastille

The Gare de la Bastille was a railway station on the Place de la Bastille in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France. The station was opened in 1859 and served as the terminus of the -long line to Vincennes and Verneuil-l'Étang. The line was opened only to serve the Fort de Vincennes; it was extended to La Varenne and later to Brie-Comte-Robert. The line finally reached Verneuil-l'Étang in 1892 and connected to the line to Mulhouse. Part of the line was included into the new suburban commuter rail line RER A on 14 December 1969. The station was demolished in 1984 so that the Opéra Bastille could be built. Designed by François-Alexis Cendrier, the Gare de la Bastille was one of Paris's earliest railway termini. In 1853, the French government decided that a strategic connection with the fort at Vincennes was desirable. The Compagnie du Chemin de Fer de Paris à Strasbourg was granted a concession to build the line, and a connecting line to Mulhouse. The Mulhouse line would share the Gare de Strasbourg (now the Gare de Paris-Est), but the Ligne de Vincennes would also create a new terminus close to the centre of Paris, the Gare de la Bastille. In 1853, the company, now known as the Chemins de fer de l'Est (CF de l'Est), opened the -long line between Vincennes and La Varenne. The extension to Paris opened on 22 September 1859. and the line was soon carrying 6,000,000 passengers each year. In 1871, following the end of the Franco-Prussian War, France lost Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. This drastically reduced the territory served by the CF de l'Est. As a result, the Gare de l'Est was developed to become the CF de l'Est's main station in Paris. Although the Gare de la Bastille was only a local terminus, by 1889 it was the second busiest in Paris, handling 12,000,000 passengers per annum. The Ligne de Vincennes was extended to Verneuil-l'Étang in 1892, making it long. The station served commuters during the week, and Parisians escaping to the country on weekends. By the 1920s, the Gare de la Bastille was handling 30,000,000 passengers each year.