Credit: Centre for Newfoundland Studies Archive, Collection 137, photo number 0167.

St. John’s in the 1800s

In the 1800s, St. John's became the centre of trade and government in Newfoundland. The harbour was filled with long "finger piers," or docks that reached out into the water like the ones at the bottom of this picture. Sometimes, so many ships were anchored in the harbour that the masts looked like a forest. This picture was probably taken in the 1880s.