| The railways had shaping impact on European capitals where they built terminals during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Common features of implantation in London, Paris, Berlin, and Brussels include constructing terminals on the outskirts of cities, improving access to and between stations, providing rail connections between separate lines, developing the strategic potential of rail transport, and modifying legislation for incorporation and expropriation. Specific station areas in each city are approached as case study for a distinct facet of implantation.; In London, private railway companies targeted lower-class housing developed on large estates obtainable from single owners to build their facilities. Large-scale population displacement, aggravation of housing conditions, commuting-dependent suburban growth, and class segregation were social, urban and demographic consequences of railway expansion.; In Second Empire Paris, over fifty kilometers of boulevards were built, in part, to connect railway stations, new gateways to the city, but Haussmann's urban reconfiguration fell short of effectively integrating the railways into the communication network of the city.; Building and connecting Berlin's rail lines was significantly influenced by strategic considerations. From a rhetoric of universal peace promised by industrial progress, the four countries gradually shifted to incorporating railways into their military arsenal. The testing ground of the battlefield encouraged additional rail connections in Berlin and implicated the railways in technology-dependent warfare.; The 1952 underground connection between Brussels' two main stations ripped through the residential and commercial city core. Urban planning did not inform reconstruction of boulevards lined with administrative structures, staffed by commuters who continue the long Belgian tradition of rural or small-town dwelling. This has checked the growth of the capital and encouraged the ethnic divisiveness which has federated the state.; The fabric of nineteenth-century cities was altered by the presence of large industrial yards next to residential areas and the configuring impact of imposing structures which experimented with new architectural solutions to meet operational and corporate needs while pitting private or state-regulated companies against local and national authorities. The railways inserted indelible lines on the maps of cities where they enhanced the workings of evolutionary forces. |
