Building the Dock 1864-1867 / Belfast's Industrial Growth

Building the Dock 1864-1867 / Belfast's Industrial Growth (HM2HTG)

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N 54° 36.381', W 5° 54.697'

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[Front]
Building the Dock 1864-1867

The construction of the dock began in February 1864 and was finished within three years. Four hundred and fifty men were employed to build the graving dock and the adjoining basin.

The site was excavated with picks, shovels, and hand- and steam-powered dredgers; while water was pumped away with a steam pump. When all the sleech was removed, wooden piling was driven into the ground before foundations of concrete and sandstone slabs were laid. Scrabo sandstone was bound together with water-resistant lime mortar, which was manufactured on site in specially constructed kilns.
Hamilton Graving Dock was Belfast's third graving dock and the first to be built in over forty years. The other two docks were located across the river beside Clarendon Dock. 'Graving Dock No 1' was built in 1800 and 'Graving Dock No 2', which was 285 feet in length and had a depth of 15 feet, opened in 1826.
Over 200,000 tons of sleech were excavated to create the dock.
[Blue inset caption reads]

Sleech is a layer of soft, grey mud and fine sand that is located directly under the topsoil near rivers. In Belfast, it is between 10ft and 50ft (3m and 15m) thick and notoriously difficult to build on.
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At



450ft (137m) long Hamilton Dock could easily accommodate eight articulated lorries lined up end to end.
(Based on the average lorry measuring 16.5m long)
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Hamilton Dock is 22ft (7m) deep. An average giraffe would not be able to see over the top of the dock.
(Based on the average giraffe measuring 5.5m)
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[Photo captions read]
Above
Alexandra Dock under construction in 1886. This dry dock was built in a similar fashion to Hamilton Dock, though on an even grander scale.
Right This detailed plan shows a cross-section of Hamilton Dock. Much attention was given to the strengthening of the dock walls by using vaulted arches and stepped stone sides called altar courses.
[Back]
Belfast's Industrial Growth

By 1870 almost half the city's population was employed at the linen mills.
In 1784, the White Linen Hall was constructed where Belfast City Hall now stands as a celebration of the city's growing linen industry.

[Photo captions read]
Above
A nineteenth-century linen factory
Below The linen factories, such as this one in York Street, introduced industrialisation to Belfast on a massive scale.
Above, left Thomas Mulholland &



Co. opened the first steam driven flax spinning mill in Belfast in 1829 and heralded Belfast's time as a Linenopolis[.]
Directly above, top and bottom Despite the booming industries in Belfast, the poor still lived in slum conditions. Johnstone's Court, near Ross's Mills, Belfast.
Residents of Crozier's Row, Belfast.
Left White Linen Hall
Details
HM NumberHM2HTG
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Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Friday, June 14th, 2019 at 8:01pm PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)30U E 311955 N 6054884
Decimal Degrees54.60635000, -5.91161667
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 54° 36.381', W 5° 54.697'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds54° 36' 22.86" N, 5° 54' 41.82" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Which side of the road?Marker is on the right when traveling South
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