The labors of Hercules began. Two thousand navvies, working in day and night shifts, attacked the Vincennes-Maillot section.
Every day, a thousand cubic meters of rubble had to be evacuated. It was calculated in 1905 that this rubble, installed over the entire surface of the Place de la Concorde, would have formed a hill reaching 70 meters in height!
As the workers dug, the trench was supported by plank forms. Then the vault of the tunnel was executed in masonry.
In December 1899, a collapse occurred between Avenue Friedland and the Champs-Élysées. The fault was 50 meters long and 15 wide. The road tumbled 15 meters, dragging down trees and gaslights. Two passers-by were injured. The navvies had fortunately seen the accident hold and had taken shelter.
It had been agreed that the line would be open in July 1900, for the great Exhibition. This prospect continued to worry the timorous people. Some journalists said without laughing that the passengers would be suffocated by the smoke.
Others feared, in the darkness of the tunnels, the action of pickpockets or the improprieties of bad guys. As for the shareholders of the tramway companies and the owners of the hired cars, they were naturally very unhappy with the competition and were ranting about the new mode of Parisian transport.
July 19, 1900. The thermometer marks, in Paris, 38° in the shade. What pleasant freshness must reign in the tunnels of the metropolitan!
On this day now marked with a white cross, the Maillot station is open to the public. The work was originally to be completed for the day of the national holiday, but the prefect of police Lépine feared for that day of the demonstrations. A deadline of five days was therefore decided. On the 18th, a deputation of important figures, including the Minister of Public Works and the Prefect of the Seine, inaugurated the line by going from Maillot to Vincennes.