1901 Paris to Berlin Race – Faster Than The Express Train
By Walter Wellman
Picturesque, indeed, was the scene at Fort de Champigny, on the outskirts of Paris, early in the morning of July 27th. As the first gray dawn-light crept down from the north. great crowds of men and women were to be seen along the boulevard. All through the night they had been coming from Paris—afoot, in automobiles, on bicycles, in swell carriages, in hired voitures, for which some had paid as high as 360 francs the night. There was a feast of lanterns and of headlights moving to and fro. Little could be heard but the shrill hoots of wheelmen’s horns, and the deeper bass of the automobile sirens. There was a hum of conversation—a babel of shouts.
By daylight the police had cleared the way. Officials were running about, excitedly endeavoring to get everyone into his assigned place. For a time the was filled with the grunting of huge automobile racers, the teuf-teuf of the voiturettes, and the sharp. short explosions of the motorcycles, as competitor after competitor moved to his station. As the favorites appeared, cries were heard here and there, ” Voila Fournier!” ” Voila Girardot!” or Farman or Charron, as the case might be. By half-past three too racing vehicles, each bearing its official number on a large placard, were drawn up, one after the other, each by a tree marked with the corresponding numerals. Just before 3.30—it was now almost broad daylight in the latitude of Paris – the timekeeper counted off the final seconds: “Dix, cinq, quatre, trois, deux, un—parlez!”
