Belfast, Canal Wharf And Queen's Bridge 1897

Photo ref: 40225

More about this scene

The wharf tells of another watery enterprise. The River Lagan flows within a few miles of the huge Lough Neagh, which is bordered by four Ulster counties; a lot of work was done to make the river able to take barges, with a link to the lough. It was never very profitable, but it carried a considerable amount of traffic until well after this photograph was taken. Most of the traffic was coal, which was loaded in the harbour beyond the bridge and taken to the linen mills along the river, but there was also a steady flow of sand downstream to this wharf. The barges made the first part of their journey upstream with the aid of steam tugs; here we see a tug returning to the coal quays - its funnel would be lowered to miss the arches. The long 21-arch bridge built across the Lagan in the 17th century served for a very long time; it was Victorian Belfast which built this five-arch Queen's Bridge. It had to be widened not very long before the photograph was taken, and the massive brackets that carry the pavements can be seen.

An extract from Belfast Photographic Memories.