RETRO FILES / SCENE FROM THE LEFT BANK OF PARIS CIRCA 1895:

Intersection of BoulevardArango and Boulevard de Port Royal (not so many cars and plenty of horse power). 

Boulevard Arago at Port-Royal, about 1895. The junction is already in its present form—broad carriageways, straight sightlines, and rows of evenly spaced trees. A tramcar crosses the tracks at the center of the frame, sharing the street with horse carts and foot traffic. Men in dark coats stand or move at an unhurried pace, some stepping into the roadway without concern. The buildings, recently completed, line the boulevard in a continuous wall of stone, their height and proportions consistent from corner to corner. There is a definite uniformity here, the kind seen in Washington, where design was settled in advance and carried through without much deviation. It stands in contrast to New York, which took more of Chicago’s course—practical, fast, and less concerned with keeping every façade in line. In this Paris scene, electric traction is in service, but horses still handle most of the haulage. There are no motorcars in view. The street was laid out for the future, and it shows—each element in place, doing its work as intended.