All the Times Notre Dame Was Almost Destroyed in the Past

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyOn Monday just before 8 p.m. local time, an audible gasp rippled through the streets of Paris as bystanders watched the spire that towered above the Notre Dame Cathedral topple over in a fiery rush. The steeple had served as a symbol of cultural achievement, national pride, and faith for generations in France and the world over, and it was now gone.It wasn’t the first time that the spire had been forcibly separated from the cath