layed and the quality of the pavements is only mediocre. For the macadam highways the resurfacing of from 3 to 31⁄2 inches in thickness will last from two to five years, in accordance with the traffic. Although Nantes is a comparatively small town, the Chief Engineer of Public Works states that approximately 1700 openings are made in the street surface in the course of a year for various classes of subsurface work such as sewer connections, etc., and these excavations have an approximate length of 18,360 feet. All subsurface pipes for water, gas and sewers are placed beneath the roadways, while the lines for electricity are in part under the footways and in part under the roadways. No special arrangement is made for the maintenance of pavement in the tramway areas, which is taken care of as part of the general street work. The control of the highways is under a chief engineer, who is Director of Public Works, and under him the city is divided into a number of districts, each in charge of an assistant engineer with the necessary organization. Street cleaning and lighting and subsurface pipes are under separate direction except as regards the sewers and drains, which are under control of the Highway Department. No special regulations exist for the issuance of permits for street occupation during building construction or for other private uses. Like Bordeaux, the information for Nantes has been obtained entirely by correspondence. LILLE The capital of the department of Le Nord is situated in the plain of the river Deule, near the Belgian frontier, and has extensive communication, both by canal and railway, with the ports and commercial cities of north France and Belgium. It is one of the most strongly fortified cities in Europe and of great commercial importance to France, having extensive linen manufactories on account of its situation in the flax-growing country, many large cotton mills and the French Company tobacco manufactories, as well as various others. It has a population of about 205,000. It is laid out in broad streets and squares paved as follows: The annual amount of repaving is about 13,200 square yards at a total cost of $38,600. New pavements cost Stone block. Per Sq. Yd. All work of maintenance and new construction is done by city forces, stone for both block pavement and macadam being purchased on a basis of satisfactory wear. Macadam roads have an ordinary life of from 3 to 9 years in accordance with traffic; stone block, about 20 years. With the exception of electric wires, all pipes are placed beneath the carriageways; the former are below the sidewalks. The municipal organization having control of pavements is similar to that in other French cities, carrying out all work, including maintenance of pavement in the car-tracks, by city forces. The same organization controls, in addition, the cleaning of streets, subsurface pipes, lighting, etc. NANCY The capital of the department of Meurthe et Moselle, situated on the left bank of the river Meurthe about 220 miles east of Paris, at the foot of a range of hills, consists of an old and new town, the latter laid out with broad straight streets, as well as a number of suburbs. The city has a population of 120,000. It is the site of a university and various other public institutions, and has considerable manufactures, principally of cotton, wool, brass and embroideries. The city streets have a total length of 77.51 miles. there are the following classes of pavement: Wood pavement (on two bridges). In addition to macadam Compressed asphalt (four streets). Stone block (including quartzite of Sierck 241,104.36 Totals.... 25.05 244,619.90 About 8600 square yards are annually repaved at a total cost of $5,404.00. Unit prices for different classes of paving, both for new work and repairs, are as follows: All repairs are made by contract, in accordance with specifications specially prepared for the individual work, as well as the general specifications adopted by the city. No tests of material are made for wood and asphalt pavements, which have to be guaranteed by the contractor; but granite paving blocks are tested at the laboratory of L'Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees at Paris. The first compressed asphalt pavement constructed at Nancy in 1904 has had nine years of wear without any repairs other than for some cracks. It appears to be capable of at least eleven more years of life before having to be entirely reconstructed. Wood pavements have an estimated life of 12 years. Stone pavements are entirely replaced after 60 years. The following table shows the extent of street excavations annually made: The average extent of each opening is about 20 feet, making a total area of 12,240 square yards. The sewers are usually placed under the center-line of the roadway; water and gas pipes under the roadway on one or the other side of the sewer. As a rule, electric cables are placed beneath the footways. Street railways are laid with a type of steel rail having a weight of 76 lbs. to the linear yard. The head of the rail has a width of 5 inches; its depth is 5% inches. The rail rests directly on 4 inches of sand without sleepers and is connected by tie rods at intervals of 10 feet. Paving blocks are laid to the exact level of the head of the rail. Heavy traffic has the bad custom of following the rails, necessitating frequent resetting of the blocks. Where new building construction is being carried on, only one-third of the width of the public way can be occupied by the builder, and in no case must traffic be allowed to be interrupted. The organization in control of the streets is headed by an engineer of the corps of Ponts et Chaussees, having under him 2 assistants, 4 inspectors and 16 cantonniers. In addition to the above organization, the service of Public Ways includes the organization necessary for the construction and maintenance of sewers, water pipes, lighting and general inspection. BOULOGNE-SUR-MER Although not one of the large cities of France, this is an important port, particularly for transatlantic passenger service and for traffic between Great Britain and the continent, and in appearance it is typical of the usual French city of moderate size. It has a population of 53,000 and is located directly on the Channel, having an accessible harbor at all stages of the tide. The town is partly laid out on low ground, adjacent to the port, and also on surrounding hills. The streets are paved with stone blocks and macadam. Some streets in the hill section have such grade as to be prohibitive for any but pedestrian traffic. CALAIS Lying on the coast, about 10 miles to the north, has a population of 72,000 and very similar conditions to those of Boulogne, except that it is not of nearly so great importance as a port, its principal traffic being a passenger business between Dover and France. CHAPTER III GERMANY Germany differs from France in that it consists of a number of federated states and kingdoms having more or less different types of municipalities, without the uniform control and type of government existing in France. It has, of course, the more powerful authority of the imperial government in regard to general regulations, but great diversity of practice is observable in municipal matters among different cities. It has also the greatest number of large manufacturing cities existing in any European country. BERLIN Berlin is the newest and the most modern in construction of all the great cities of Europe. While the central part of Berlin proper has considerable antiquity, it has been a great and important center only during the past century, and it has had its greatest growth in the last fifty years. It is situated in north Prussia, on the outskirts of an extensive flat marsh tract, lying between the Elbe and the North Sea, and occupies a generally low flat plain on the Spree, which divides it centrally in an east and west direction by a narrow channel, and this, in connection with a series of supplementary canals, unites the various navigable streams in the vicinity. Within the city limits of Berlin proper are about 2,000,000 inhabitants. Charlottenburg immediately to the west and Wilmersdorf, Schöneberg, Steglitz, Grunewald and other towns in a southerly and westerly direction, form, with the original city, a series of metropolitan boroughs which have a total population of over 3,000,000 and which may in the future be consolidated under one control. The old part of the city has the usua! characteristics of the continental towns, a more or less narrow and irregular street plan growing up in a direction generally at right-angles to the stream along which it lies and surrounded by circular streets following the traces of the old city fortification. The start, however, of the development of modern Berlin on a scientific plan was outlined in the old city with the laying out of Unter den Linden, which remains the finest and most important street, along which is a number of hotels and government buildings. This street begins at the edge of the old town where, on the southwest bank of the canal and river are situated the government palaces and principal buildings, and runs for nearly a mile westward, forming a broad avenue of nearly 200 feet in width, having wide footways, two driveways and a central parkway. At right-angles to this street and laid out on a rectangular system extends, on either side, within an area of less than one square mile, the principal government, financial and retail business activities, as well as the hotels and places of amusement. To the westward on the extension of the axis of Unter den Linden, a series of variously named parkways continues it through the main city park, the Thiergarten, and beyond that through Charlottenburg and Grunewald, forming for several miles one of the finest driveways in the world. Charlottenburg, like the central portion of Berlin, has a generally rectangular system on both sides of this boulevard, which, through its limits, is known as Berlinerstrasse and Kaiserdamm, its square plan being broken by several diagonal wide avenues and containing in general a high-class residential population. The Westend and Grunewald, to the west of Charlottenburg, are still in process of development, growing up as high-class suburban residence districts; which |