Titanic’s Construction in Gantry, 1909-1911
Photograph
Construction of the Titanic began on March 31, 1909 when designer Thomas Andrews laid the first keel plate at Harland & Wolff's shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. When Titanic was designed, no facilities existed to construct such a large ship. Harland & Wolff set about building the new slipway required, having demolished three smaller ones to make room. An enormous gantry was built to facilitate Titanic's construction. The Arrol Gantry stood 228 feet (69 m) high, was 270 feet (82 m) wide and 840 feet (260 m) long, and weighed more than 6,000 tons. It accommodated a number of mobile cranes. A separate floating crane, capable of lifting 200 tons, was brought in from Germany to lift the boilers and other mechanical items into place on the ship.
The mammoth structure of Titanic could be seen across most of Belfast City, shrouded by the even larger gantry in which it was constructed.
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