Constructing Gallery

Palm Islands construction, Dubai

Luxury island construction, Dubai. Ikonos satellite image of an artificial palm tree-shaped island created in the Persian Gulf, off the coast of Dubai. This is the Jumeirah Palm resort. It is one of two artificial islands (the Palm Islands). The project started in May 2002; this image was taken on 9 June 2004. 200 million cubic metres of sand have been used to create 120 kilometres of shoreline for over 60 hotels, 5000 luxury villas and apartments, marinas, dive sites, restaurants and shopping malls. Construction on the Jumeirah Palm is expected to be completed by early 2006. Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates

© GEOEYE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

The Severn Tunnel works, 1880

The Severn Tunnel works - building the railway tunnel linking South Gloucestershire to Monmouthshire under the estuary of the River Severn. It was built between 1873 and 1886. 1. View of the present Great Western Railway steam ferry, Monmouthshire bank, low tide. 2. Diver in Great Engine pit preparing to descend into the inundated portion to rectify the machinery, Monmouthshire side. 3. Construction of the tunnel on the Gloucestershire side, showing the system of timbering. 4. Scene at the pumping shaft in Five Mile Four pit, Monmouthshire bank. Date: 1880

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Queen Mary Ocean Liner, nearly ready for launching

The Queen Mary, then known as Hull Number 534, had been halted between 1931 and 1934 due to the Great Depression of the 1930s, but the merger of Cunard and White Star Line and a nine-and-a-half million pound government loan saved the vessel. When the work was resumed she was a rusty-red in colour, in the photograph showing her in dry docks been transformed, scarlet below the water-level and pale grey above. In the summer of 1934, she was still enginless, and the inside was just vast empty rooms awaiting the work of skilled carpenters, eletricians and plumbers ready for the launch in September. Date: 1934

© Mary Evans Picture Library