3-070-615 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Improvements on the Kentish coast: view looking from Hythe eastward to Sandgate, 1881. Engraving from a sketch by Major A. Moberly. 'The Hythe and Sandgate Embankment, or the Hythe Marine Parade, which adds greatly to the attractions of that salubrious place of seaside resort, has occupied two years and a half in its construction. Sir John Coode has been the consulting engineer, Mr. H. B. James the constructor, and Mr. H. D. Good the resident engineer for superintendence during the operations. The wall, which is of concrete faced by Kentish rag, and strengthened at intervals of twenty feet by counter-forts, has a length of about 6000 ft. It is 8 ft. wide at the base and 4 ft. at the top, and has a depth of 19 ft., in some places 22 ft. The asphalted promenade of which it is the bulwark measures 20 ft. across, while the roadway beyond it, already finished to the like width, will ultimately be 80 ft. broad. Three-quarters of a million cubic yards of shingle have been lifted from the foreshore to form the road and promenade'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.