Strawbery Banke Presents
HISTORIC PORTSMOUTH #226

Inside a wooden cofferdam 35-feet below water level, workmen dig and blast at the rocky outcrop formerly known as Henderson’s Point on the Kittery side of the Piscataqua. Work began in 1902 to eliminate the dangerous 540-foot spit of land known locally as "Pull-and-Be-Damned". (Continued below) 

HISTORIC PHOTOS of the Greater Portsmouth Area appear here week

It culminated on July 22, 1905 when 50 tons of dynamite hurled debris 170 feet into the air. In this photo laborers have removed 220 cubic yards of rock and are preparing for the big blast. As many as 27 drills of varying lengths (up to 85 feet) were required to make the holes to plant the dynamite. Here distant baby-sized workmen in the center hold one of those long drills.

CLICK HERE
to see the 1905 explosion

BONUS CLOSE-UPS

From HISTORIC PORTSMOUTH
Early Photographs from the Collections of Strawbery Banke
by James L. Garvin & Susan Grigg, Peter Randall Publisher
(c) Strawbery Banke Museum . All rights reserved