Cherbourg Inaugural Booklet Transatlantic Station 1933

Inaugural booklet of the Cherbourg transatlantic station on July 30, 1933. Complete document in good condition of 38 pages. Contact us for purchase and shipping. The Cherbourg transatlantic station or Cherbourg-Maritime station is both a former maritime passenger terminal and a former railway station, in service between the 1930s and 1960s, located in the territory of the commune of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, in the department of Manche, in the Normandy region. Built from 1928 by the architect René Levavasseur in collaboration with the engineers Marcel Chalos and Raymond Fleury and the Parisian decorator Marc Simon, the Cherbourg transatlantic station is the largest French monument in the Art Deco style of the 1930s. Built in reinforced concrete, light bricks and concrete stones imitating granite, it was hailed during its construction as a "masterpiece of travel architecture". We started with the train hall and then the boarding galleries. The complex is made up of the large 240-metre-long train hall and the main building, inside which there is a gigantic concourse, bordered by the offices of the shipping companies and numerous shops, a customs room and the large lounge. The ceramic flooring is a creation of the Gentil & Bourdet workshop. This main building, the largest in the architectural complex, is topped with a 70-metre-high bell tower that was blown up by the Germans in June 1944 and never rose again. The covered boarding gallery, measuring nearly 500 metres, extends the entire length of the Quai de France, built as an inseparable element of the maritime terminal. Access to the liners from the covered gallery is via nine metal walkways running on rails. Several mobile cranes are used to unload or load mail and goods. Four trains and two cruise ships can be accommodated simultaneously.