The economic advantage of this arrangement is considerable because it allows one ship to be removed and another put into the dry dock on the same opening of the gate, whereas under previous practice it would have been necessary to close the dock and pump it out to reset the bilge blocks to the known profile of the next ship.
An event which closed the docks in Rotterdam or Long Beach would have a far greater economic impact than the grounding of aircraft.
As often with the most vivid dreams, we awake feeling relieved to be back in normal life – which is the case for our director, who apologises for exposing us to the bizarre meanderings of his mind and closes the dock door to the film studio behind him.
The Port of Bristol Authority finally closed the dock in 1992.
In Newport Bay, Orange County environmental health officials closed the dock areas at Balboa Bay Club due to a sewage spill.
Every time we raise anchor and close the gate, as the dock shrinks into the horizon, and the boomph of fuzzy music begins to blast from our juggernaut speakers, my spirit is weighed down by gloom.
The Blue Knight, speaking perhaps for the author, says: "In former times bombing had some military purpose or other -taking out a railroad, smashing the enemy's factories, closing down the docks, that sort of thing.
When Stodder and others came to close up the dock and ship one evening Stodder noted, When we came up to clean that night there was not a key, doorknob, escutcheon – there wasn't a thing that hadn't been carried away.
The flap gate is hinged horizontally across the entrance and lies on the bottom, when in the open position, to be hauled up into the vertical position to close the dock a process occasionally facilitated by rendering the gate semibuoyant through the use of compressed air.
After closing the larger Upper Pool docks in the late 1960s, the PLA sold riverfront properties covering 850 acres (344 hectares).
But in 1980 the docks closed, the population began to fall, and a void opened between the town and the river.
