In 1902, it became necessary to move the post office of Papeete to another location. Instead of demolishing it and rebuilding it at the new site, it was lifted from the subsoil and moved as a whole on a
Decauville railway. Previously, during the construction of the Faaiere water tower with a capacity of 150,000 litres for the drinking water supply of the city of Papeete, a difference in altitude of was overcome with a light railway laid on a long inclined plane. A winch driven by a 12-horsepower
Fowler or
Decauville locomobile carried three narrow gauge railway trucks at a time, consuming up to of coal per day for about sixty journeys.
Paul Decauville mentioned in a letter to Governor
Theodore Lacascade, dated 18 June 1891, an order for " of portable rail tracks and about 12,000 francs of rolling stock, payable in three years", presumably for a tramway from Papeete to
Punaauia operated by hand or animals. Following the outbreak of
World War I, Papeete was
shelled by German vessels, causing loss of life and significant damage. The growth of the city was boosted by the decision to move the French nuclear weapon test range from
Algeria, which had become independent, to the atolls of
Moruroa and
Fangataufa, some to the east of Tahiti. This was motivated, in particular, by the construction of the
Faaā International Airport, the only international airport in French Polynesia, near Papeete. In 1983,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built the
Papeete Tahiti Temple here because of its large number of members in the region. On 5 September 1995 the government of
Jacques Chirac conducted the first of a series of nuclear test detonations off the shores of Moruroa. A resulting riot in Papeete lasted for two days and damaged the international airport, injured 40 people, and scared away tourism for some time. Similar rioting had occurred after another French nuclear test in the same area in 1987. == Transportation ==