Dr Wallace B. Chung is an eminent doctor in British Columbia. During his lifetime he accumulated an immense collection of documents, books, maps, posters, paintings, photographs, and other artefacts which he donated – under his and his wife’s name - to the University of British Columbia. Among them are four photos of Gibraltar
These are all dated c1929 and are labelled as having been taken on two Canadian Pacific World Tours – that of the RMS Empress of Australia and the RMS Empress of Britain although I am afraid I cannot tell which photo corresponds to which - not that it makes all that much difference.
The Neutral Ground ( c1929 )
Gibraltar - much to the irritation of many of its inhabitants - is all too frequently referred to by others as an island. It isn’t. It is actually a peninsular attached to the rest of Spain via a narrow isthmus of sandy ground which is never more than a very few meters above sea level.
The above much photographed view of the isthmus shows the road connecting the British side of the so called Neutral Ground to the Spanish aduana at the top of the picture. The difference between this photo and many other similar ones is that it must have been taken after heavy rainfall which has caused considerably waterlogging all over the place. On days like this and in days gone by when there were far fewer buildings on the isthmus the Rock from afar must have appeared to ships passing by as if it were indeed an island.
Southport Gates - (see LINK) southern entrance into the town through Charles V Wall (See LINK) ( c1929 )
A rather empty looking Gibraltar Harbour ( c1929 )
A view of the Rock from Algeciras ( 1929c )
This photograph is described on the University of British Columbia archives as “Bridge between Spain and Gibraltar”. It shows nothing of the sort. The jetty is actually joining the Spanish town of Algeciras on the mainland to a nearby island called Isla Verde which takes its name from the Arabic Al Jazira Al-Khadra which means the Green Island which in turn gave its name to the mainland town itself.