The passenger terminal in Cherbourg in 1912
Construction of the first terminal building in Cherbourg
With the number of passengers coming through Cherbourg increasing steadily, the group of tents acting as a terminal were becoming rapidly insufficient. They were replaced by a permanent stone structure which was inaugurated in 1912 and housed the various maritime companies and included a central hall where travellers could buy souvenirs and newspapers.
A passenger terminal that never sleeps
The maritime company White Star Line also set up offices in Cherbourg and stationed two tenders, Nomadic and Traffic to take passengers, their luggage and mails bags aboard the transatlantic liners, in particular Olympic from 1911 on and the Titanic from 1912.
Customs officers and the police took up residence in two wooden structures which were added to the main terminal building and also housed a post office. In 1914, the transatlantic port was in full swing, not only thanks to its passenger traffic and in particular emigrants, but also its mail service. At the time, it wasn’t rare to see 7 or 8 stop-overs in the same day, each of which involved a flow of up to 1,500 passengers!
A new transatlantic terminal for Cherbourg
The number of port calls led to the necessity of equipping Cherbourg with a deep-water port. The project was accepted in 1922 and work started the following year. Cherbourg’s new passenger terminal was inaugurated in 1933.
