Bristol's history as a port was central to its growth, prosperity and, indeed, its very identity. The Broad Quay was one of the defining features of the city's urban landscape, frequently commented on by visitors. Alexander Pope, writing in 1739, was amazed to see so many ships apparently ‘in the middle of the street’, which he felt was ‘the oddest and most surprising sight imaginable’. The city's standing as one of the main ports of the United Kingdom remained important to Bristolians throughout the nineteenth century and it was therefore vital that the facilities offered to both oceangoing and coastal vessels were kept up to date. The challenges involved in this endeavour gave rise to prolonged and rancorous political struggles to define the way forward.

The story of the port and its modernisation in the Victorian period exemplifies the four propositions set out in Chapter 1. First, the floating harbour was an important, highly visible and unavoidable feature in the urban landscape, close to the town centre and crossed by four bridges and five ferries. Second, as a port Bristol had a number of distinctive features, not least of which was that it was completely dependent on the tide to transform the naturally small River Avon into a waterway capable of carrying oceangoing vessels seven miles inland. The form taken by the harbour was partly due to the need to accommodate a greater tidal range than at any other leading port. The design was peculiar to Bristol and was, in effect, the opposite of the approach taken in London, Liverpool and elsewhere: instead of constructing docks on land next to the river, in Bristol the natural courses of the rivers Avon and Frome were converted into the harbour and a new channel (the New Cut) was excavated to carry the tidal river. This accounts for the unique and sinuous shape of the floating harbour through the town. Third, the port was locally owned and managed and its modernisation depended upon the decisions taken by the people of Bristol in response to both the opportunities offered by the expansion of trade and the challenge of accommodating the requirements of steam-powered iron ships. Fourth, during the Victorian period the changes made to the port had an effect on the shape and functioning of the city.