Seine River Steamers The Élise was the first steam ship to cross the English Channel. She was bought in England 1814 by Pierre Andriel as" Margery", and renamed "Élise". Andriel intended to accomplish a spectacular crossing of the Channel to convince public opinion that steam ships could be ocean-worthy. She sailed up the Seine and arrived in Paris on 28 March, becoming a popular sensation. Two small saluting guns were mounted at the bow and fired in honour of Louis XVIII Early tugs used chains in the river to tow trains of barges up river. The low steam pressure and low power of
Seine policemen from the Pont Saint-Michel and other locations in Paris. Dredging in the 1960s mostly eliminated tidal bores on the lower river, known in French as ""le mascaret."" In 1991 UNESCO added the banks of the Seine in Paris—the "Rive Gauche" and "Rive Droite"—to its list of World Heritage Sites in Europe. Since 2002 Paris-Plages has been held every summer on the Paris banks of the Seine: a transformation of the paved banks into a beach with sand and facilities for sunbathing and entertainment. The river is a popular site for disposal of bodies of murder victims. In 2007, 55