Belfast's identity was forged twice over. From 1909 to 1912, the Harland & Wolff shipyard on Queen's Island built RMS Titanic and her sister ships beneath twin gantry cranes, employing tens of thousands of riveters, platers and joiners. Decades later, the same city was divided by miles of "peace walls" — barriers erected during the Troubles (1969–1998) to separate nationalist and unionist neighbourhoods. Today the old shipyard is the redeveloped Titanic Quarter, while dozens of peace walls still stand.
Harland & Wolff's twin cranes, Samson and Goliath, still dominate the Belfast skyline today. And despite the 1998 peace agreement, Belfast actually gained more peace walls after the ceasefires than it had during the worst years of the conflict — most remain standing because local residents still vote to keep them.
A 3D Harland & Wolff shipyard where the Titanic's hull rises stern-to-bow beneath twin gantry cranes, paired with a map explorer of Belfast's peace walls across three eras.
The shipyard scene shows how a riveted steel hull was assembled in sequence from keel to plating; the peace walls scene shows how interface barriers between neighbourhoods accumulated well beyond the 1998 peace agreement.
Switch scenes with the selector. In the shipyard, drag the construction slider and toggle crane motion. On the map, pick an era to see how many barriers stood, and exaggerate wall height for legibility.
Harland & Wolff's cranes Samson and Goliath still tower over Belfast, while more than 30 peace walls remain standing today — most kept up by resident vote rather than official order.