Revisit the biggest moments in the greatest cities on Earth. Great Cities tells the fascinating backstories of Paris, Sh | dHNfajBRZTRFblZ3Zlk
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The story of cities can not often be boiled down to the will of one or two people.
00:05But when one of those people is an emperor, what would once have been impossible suddenly
00:09becomes possible.
00:13Napoleon brought George Houseman in to be the prefect of the Seine, basically the mayor
00:17or city administrator.
00:21Houseman began construction of the boulevard network immediately, and continued it throughout
00:25his tenure.
00:26When you're on a Houseman Boulevard, you know it.
00:29That's because he created detailed design standards.
00:32Prior to Houseman's intervention, the Arc de Triomphe was not yet the major thoroughfare
00:36it is today.
00:38Houseman and his patron Napoleon III changed Paris's entire image of itself.
00:44Much of what we think of today as Paris came from a brief 17-year renovation, and the years
00:49immediately after.