Gare Montparnasse

The Gare Montparnasse is a train station located in the Montparnasse area, in the XIVe arrondissement of Paris, France.

History

• The station opened in 1840.
• A second new station was built between 1848 and 1852.
• During the 1960s, a newer station integrated into a complex of office buildings was built. In 1969, the old station was torn down (and the Tour Montparnasse built on its spot).
• An extension was built in 1990 to host the TGV Atlantique.

The station is famous for a few incidents:

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• the derailment on October 22, 1895 of the Granville-Paris Express that overran the buffer stop. The engine careened across almost 100 feet (30 meters) of the station concourse, crashed through a two-foot thick wall, shot across a terrace and sailed out of the station, plummeting onto the Place de Rennes 30 feet (10 meters) below where it stood on its nose. While all of the passengers on board the train survived, one woman on the street below was killed by falling masonry.
• The old train station is also the place where, on August 25, 1944, the German military governor of Paris, General Von Choltitz, surrendered his garrison to the French General Philippe Leclerc after disobeying Adolf Hitler's direct order to destroy the city.