At eight o'clock on the morning of February 20th, 1801, Napoleon was seated in a carriage, peering out the window. He was busy watching the progress of a major construction project taking place in Paris. The streets were all torn up, as workers dug trenches to install a new drainage system. The narrow pathways that were once crowded and difficult to navigate were slowly getting wider as old buildings got knocked down.
Napoleon watched as construction workers, dressed in worn-out clothes, labored under the watchful eye of their overseers. He couldn't help but crack a smile at the scene. It hadn't even been a year since he had kicked off this series of construction projects, and yet the changes were already becoming evident.
