An exterior view shows The Titanic Belfast building in Belfast, Northern Ireland in this March 27, 2012 file picture. Two flares fired into the morning sky above Belfast on Saturday will mark the opening of a 97-million pound Titanic centre at the site of its launch, telling the story of the doomed liner which sank 100 years ago. Titanic Belfast is one of a number of signature projects designed to generate tourism in Northern Ireland, better known for decades as a region of violence and sectarian strife. Some 100,000 people from 20 countries have booked tickets in advance to visit the showcase building constructed beside the slipway from which the liner was launched by the Harland and Wolff shipyard a century ago. DAVID MOIR/REUTERS/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: rtrlfive157632
“One minute you’re being whisked through the busy Belfast shipyard where the Titanic is being built. The next you’re contemplating, amid a chilly piped-in breeze and lights mimicking darkened waters, the horror of freezing to death in the North Atlantic.” So said the Associated Press journalist Shawn Pogatchnik about visiting the new Titanic museum that opened in Belfast, Ireland this past weekend – 100 years to the day that the Titanic was completed in Belfast.
The museum is a stunning tribute (both in the building itself and in the exhibits inside) that documents the world’s obsession with the story of the Titanic. It’s hard to say exactly why the story has had such staying power nearly 100 years after the Titanic went down, but the museum had already sold 100,000 tickets before it even opened.
Hosted by the city that built the massive ship, the museum has many replicas of what parts of the Titanic looked like along with artifacts that have been recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic. Some of the displays even have video projects of actors in period costumes, reenacting the building of the Titanic or what life on board the vessel was like.
Check out the images we have in this post, then head back to Newscom to see more pictures of the ill-fated ocean liner. Share the story with your readers as we get closer to the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
Belfast Lord Mayor Niall O Donnghaile speaks at the opening of Titanic Belfast, the world's largest Titanic-themed attraction in the old shipyard at Harland and Wolff, where the doomed liner was built in Belfast, UK on March 31, 2012. Behal Julien/PA Photos/ABACA/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: abausaphotos701690
Full-scale reconstruction of a 3rd class cabin aboard RMS Titanic. Lefranc David/ABACA/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: abaphotos865058
An authentic near-replica of RMS Titanic's ornate Grand Staircase at the Titanic Belfast exhibition in Belfast, UK in March 2012. Extending over nine galleries, the exhibition is thought as an interactive journey in the Titanic's mythology from the conception to the exploration of the wreck. Lefranc David/ABACA/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: abausaphotos699592
(L-R) Paul Crowe, the architect from Todd agency, Chief executive Tim Husbands and Senior designer Steve Lumby pose in front of the Titanic Belfast building celebrating the history of Belfast harbour, in Belfast, UK in March 2012. Standing at the head of the slipways where RSM Titanic was launched from on Wednesday, 31st May 1911, the four ship's 'hull-shaped' wings are covered in 3,000 silver aluminium shards which had been installed individually. The world's largest Titanic visitor experience has already a nickname : the iceberg. Lefranc David/ABACA/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: abausaphotos699594
Shipping crates are used as signage in the Titanic Belfast visitor centre, Titanic Quarter, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Liam McArdle/Photoshot/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: ptsphotoshot767699
Detail from a recreation of a Third Class cabin on the Titanic in Titanic Belfast visitor centre, Titanic Quarter, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Liam McArdle/Photoshot/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: ptsphotoshot767724
Workers prepare the opening ribbon on the Titanic sign at the Titanic Belfast visitor centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on March 31, 2012. The world's biggest Titanic visitor attraction opens in the ship's Belfast birthplace today, 100 years to the day since the doomed liner was completed in the same yards. PETER MUHLY/AFP/Getty Images/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: afplivefour372572
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Tags: anniversary, belfast, ireland, museum, titanic