Plans for a new National, or Admiralty
Harbour were drawn up in September 1897. These plans
proposed the extension of the existing
Admiralty
Pier and the building of a second pier, the Eastern
Arm, of about the same length on the other side of the
bay, a mile and a half away. The gap between the two
piers was to be bridged by a detached Mole or Southern
Breakwater, with an entrance to the harbour at each
end of it. The contract for its construction was awarded
to S. Pearson & Son in April 1898. This major building
project took over ten years, the harbour finally being
completed in 1909. It is still the Admiralty Harbour
that forms the framework of Dover Harbour as it is today.
