2-982-288 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Cherbourg, 1858. 'Between the French port and the English coast roll sixty or seventy good miles of ocean; and, when you have inspected Cherbourg, you will not wish the channel one league less in breadth. The town itself, it need scarcely he said, is not the place-it is the least important part of it; the real Cherbourg consists of the harbour, the military port, the breakwater, and the fortifications. Cherbourg would be nearly all it is if the town did not exist. The immense works are not intended for its defence only; its little export and coasting trade does not require those moles, piers, quays, and armed towers, the foundations of which are driven into the deep. The works front the town, and flank it on each side, and rise behind it. All that the art of the military engineer can do to give strength to the natural position has been done; the position has called the works into existence, and the works are the place; the town is only an accident, not an essential part of it'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.