Fresh Water

To bring fresh water to the city, his hydraulic engineer, Eugene Belgrand, built a new aqueduct to bring clean water from the Vanne River in Champagne, and a new huge reservoir near the future Parc Montsouris. These two works increased the water supply of Paris from 87000 to 400000 cubic meters of water a day. He laid hundreds of kilometers of pipes to distribute the water throughout the city, and built a second network, using the less clean water from the Ourq and the Seine, to wash the streets and water the new park and gardens. The population of Paris had doubled since 1815, with no increase in its area. To accommodate the growing population and those who would be forced from the center by the new boulevards and squares, Napoleon III planned to build; he issued a decree annexing eleven surrounding communes and increasing the number of arrondissements from twelve to twenty, which enlarged the city to its modern boundaries. Beginning in 1854, in the center of the city, Haussmann's workers tore down hundreds of old buildings and cut eighty kilometers of new avenues, connecting the central points of the city. Buildings along these avenues were required to be the same height and in a similar style, and to be faced with cream-colored stone, creating the signature look of Paris boulevards.