48°50′58.11″N 02°22′02.52″E / 48.8494750°N 2.3673667°E
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The Bassin de l'Arsenal (also known as the Port de l'Arsenal) is a boat basin in Paris. It links the Canal Saint-Martin, which begins at the Place de la Bastille, to the Seine, at the Quai de la Rapée. A component of the Réseau des Canaux Parisiens (Parisian Canal Network), it forms part of the boundary between the 4th and the 12th arrondissements. It is bordered by the Boulevard Bourdon on the 4th (westerly) side and the Boulevard de la Bastille on the 12th (easterly) side.
From the 16th century until the 19th, an arsenal existed at this location. The arsenal accounts for the name of the basin and the name of the neighborhood, Arsenal, bordering the westerly (4th arrondissement) side of the basin.
After the destruction of the Bastille fortress in November 1789 (during the French Revolution), the Bassin de l'Arsenal was excavated to replace the ditch that had been in place to draw water from the Seine to fill the moat at the fortress.
During the nineteenth century and most of the twentieth, the Bassin de l'Arsenal was a commercial port where goods were loaded and unloaded. Separated from the Seine by the Morland lockgate, the port was converted into a leisure port in 1983 by a decision of the Mairie de Paris (Paris City Hall) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and it is now run by the Association for the Leisure Port of Paris-Arsenal.
The basin is part of France's national Voies navigables de France (VNF, Navigable Waterways of France) system. Since that time, it has been a marina (in French, a port de plaisance), for approximately 180 pleasure boats.
