The Gare d'Orsay was inaugurated on the 14th of July 1900 for the Paris World Exposition and was considered a masterpiece of industrial architecture. But soon the platforms had become too short for the now much longer trains and as early as 1939, the gare d'Orsay was out of use as a train station. Over time it was used as a parking lot, as a shooting stand, as a theatre location and even as a reception center for prisoners of war.
The train station had been completely abandoned since 1961 when it was saved from demolition by the French president Pompidou. In 1978 his successor, president Giscard d'Estaing, decided to use the Gare
Inside the museum d'Orsay as a museum for 19th and 20th century art.