The Plan to Build a Fake Paris during World War I

Strategic bombing during World War I worried the French enough that they decided to build a fake Paris outside of the real one to distract German pilots. They hoped that this series of sheds, lights and roads would lure the enemy away from their capital. Although the French began construction, the war ended it before completion. Ptak Science Books has copies of a 1920 article from the Illustrated London News about the project.

Link -via io9