COM M (CATIONS AND BRIDGES. The wall-girt city covers an area of about 30 square miles. It is entered by six lines of railroads: the palatial stations in the metropolis include the Gare du Nord on the Place Roubaix. the Gare Saint-Lazare, facing the Rue Saint-Lazare. the Gare de l'Est or de Strasbourg on the )'lace de Strasbourg, the Gave d'Orleans on the Quai d*Austerlitz, and the Gore de Lyon on the Boule vard Diderot. The Seine, which enters Paris in the southeast at Bercy, about a mile below its junction with the Marne, is spanned by 32 bridges. It leaves the city at Point du Jour in the southwest. having divided it in two parts. and having formed the two islands of La Cite and Saint-Louis, which are both covered with build ings. The river at Paris is from 300 to 500 feet wide. The most celebrated and ancient of the bridges are the Pont Notre Dame. dating from 1300. and the Pont Neuf. begun in 1578, coni pleted by Henry IV. in 1004. and thoroughly restored in 1852. The latter, which crosses the Seine at the lower end of the Ile-de-la-Cite, is 1080 feet long, and abuts near the middle on a small peninsula planted with trees which form a background to the equestrian statue of henry IV.,
which stands in the central open space on the bridge. Among the other bridges, the handsomest are the Pout de la Concorde, 160 yards long, built in 1781-90; the Pont d'Austerlitz, and Pont (Plena. both of the time of the Pirst Empire; the Pont du Carrousel, built under Louis Philippe; and the Pont des Invalides, Pont de ]'Altura, and Pont de Solferino—all line structures, adorned with military and naval trophies commemorative of events and victories connected with the Second Empire. Among the most recent, and one of the most striking, is the Pont Alexandre III., named in honor of the Czar, and the Pont Mirabeau. connecting Auteuil and Grenelle. These bridges all communicate directly with the spacious quays, planted with trees, which line both banks of the Seine, and which, together with the boulevards, give characteristic beauty to the city. Although the most ancient quays—a; the Quai des Angus tins and the Quai de la Milgisserie—date from the fourteenth century, the greatest part of these magnificent embankments, measuring 12 mile: in extent, is due to Napoleon 1. and Napoleon III.