Gare Montparnasse
The train station of Montparnasse (Gare Montparnasse) in Paris, France opened in 1840. A second new station was built between 1848-1852 and was completely rebuilt after World War II and renovated completely in 1969.It is most famous for a few incidents:
- 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.
- 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 an insane Adolf Hitler's direct order to destroy the city.
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