Historic Paris by Jetta Sophia Wolff

dates from 1853. The _place_ was built in 1782, when the Petit Châtelet, which had succeeded the Tour de Bois, was razed. In Rue du Petit-Pont we see some old houses on the odd number side. Many were demolished when the street was widened a few years ago. The other bridge of Roman times, succeeding no doubt a rude primitive bridge, stretched where the Pont Notre-Dame now spans the river. The Roman bridge, built on staves, was overthrown by the Normans in 861. Rebuilt as Pont Notre-Dame in 1413, it crashed to pieces some eighty years later, carrying down with it the house of a famous printer of the day. It was alternatively destroyed and rebuilt several times till its last reconstruction in 1853. Its houses were the first in France to be numbered (1507). There were sixty-eight of them and the numbering was done in gold or gilded ciphers. All these old houses were pulled down in