【Esther Moser】

The Esther MoserSeine is flooding in Paris, but it's not the first time.

On Tuesday, the Seine's water level was sitting at 16 feet — the current flood emergency level is "orange," the highest warning below "red." But in 1910, Parisians had to hop aboard rowboats, make deliveries through windows, and construct makeshift pathways through the City of Lights when the Seine rose to 28 feet, causing what's known as the Great Flood of Paris.

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SEE ALSO: Dramatic photos of flooded Paris as the Seine overflows

Italian weekly newspaper La Domenica del Corrierepublished an illustration of the floods on its front cover on Jan. 30, 1910. It's a wildly over-the-top but undeniably effective representation of the city's situation: Citizens tumbling out of trains into row boats, using wood for pathways and being carried above the water level. Sure, it's artistic license in action, but it gets the point across.

An illustration of floods in Paris during January 1910, published in La Domenica del Corriere. Credit: Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images

Luckily, we don't have to rely on such a dramatic illustration to get an idea of what the Great Flood actually looked like. We dug into the archives to take a look at the worst flood Paris has ever experienced.

Floods in Paris, footbridge in front of the main courtyard of the Palais Bourbon, January 1910. Credit: Photo12/UIG via Getty Images A man at his balcony, 136 quai d'Auteuil in Paris on January 24, 1910. Credit: adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images An improvised pathway on Rue de Passy. Credit: Keystone-France\Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Gare d'Orsay — now the site of the Musee d'Orsay. Credit: Branger/Roger Viollet/Getty Images Two men carrying a woman through the flooded streets of Paris. Credit: Apic/Getty Images Delivery at a butcher roughly Rue Surcouf, 12th arrondissement Credit: Branger/Roger Viollet/Getty Images Residents peer out of windows. Credit: ND/Roger Viollet/Getty Images The Chamber of Deputies. Credit: Branger/Roger Viollet/Getty Images Undetermined Parisian suburb. Credit: ND/Roger Viollet/Getty Images Avenue Daumesnil, in January, 1910. Credit: ND/Roger Viollet/Getty Images A boat of sorts. Credit: ND/Roger Viollet/Getty Images

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