BELFAST, a city, county and parliamentary borough, the capital of the province of Ulster, and county town of county Antrim, Ireland. It is a seaport of the first rank, situated at the entrance of the river Lagan into Belfast Lough, 112 3/4 m. north of Dublin by rail, on the north-east coast of the island. It is an important railway centre, with terminal stations of the Great Northern, Northern Counties (Midland of England), and Belfast & County Down railways, and has regular passenger communication by sea with Liverpool, Fleetwood, Heysham, Glasgow, and other ports of Great Britain. It is built on alluvial deposit and reclaimed land, mostly not exceeding 6 ft. above high water mark, and was thus for a long period subject to inundation and epidemics, and only careful drainage rendered the site healthy. The appearance of the city plainly demonstrates the modern growth of its importance, and evidence is not wanting that for a considerable period architectural improvement was unable to keep pace with commercial development. Many squalid districts, however, have been improved away to make room for new thoroughfares and handsome buildings. One thoroughfare thus constructed at the close of the i9th century is the finest in BelfastRoyal Avenue. It contains, among several notable buildings, the post office, and the free public library, opened in I888 and comprising a collection of over 40,000 volumes, as well as an art gallery and a museum of antiquities especially rich in remains of the Neolithic period. The architect was Mr W. H. Lynn. The magnificent city ball, from designs of Mr (afterwards Sir) Brumwell Thomas, was opened in 1906. The principal streets, such as York Street, Donegall Street, North Street, High Street, are traversed by tramways. Four bridges cross the Lagan; the Queens Bridge (1844, widened in 1886) is the finest, while the Albert Bridge (1889) replaces a former one which collapsed. Other principal public buildings, nearly all to be included in modern schemes of development, are the city hail, occupying the site of the old Linen Hall, in Donegall Square, estimated to cost 300,000; the commercial buildings (1820) in Waring Street, the customhouse and inland revenue office on Donegall Quay, the architect of which, as of the court house, was Sir Charles Lanyon, and some of the numerous banks, especially the Ulster Bank. The Campbell College in the suburb of Belmont was founded in. 1892 in accordance with the will of Mr W. J. Campbell, a Belfast merchant, who left 200,000 for the building and endowment of a public school. Other educational establishments are Queens University, replacing the old Queens College (1849) under the Irish Universities Act 1908; the Presbyterian and the Methodist Colleges, occupying neighboring sites close to the extensive botanical gardens, the Royal Academical Institution, and the Municipal Technical Institute. In 1897 the sum of 100,000 was subscribed by citizens to found a hospital (1903) to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, and named after her. It took the place of an institution which, under various names, had existed since 1797. Public monuments are few, but include a statue of Queen Victoria (1903) and a South African War memorial (1905) in front of the city hall; the Albert Memorial (1870), in the form of a clock-tower, in Queen Street; a monument to the same prince in High Street; and a statue in Wellington Place to Dr Henry Cooke, a prominent Presbyterian minister who died in 1868. The corporation controls the gas and electric and similar undertakings. The water supply, under the control of the City and District Water Commissioners (incorporated 1840), has its sources iii the Mourne Mountains, Co. Down, 40 m. distant, with a service reservoir at Knockbreckan; also in the hilly district near Carrickfergus. There are several public parks, of which the principal are the Ormeau Park (1870), the Victoria, Alexandra, and Falls Road parks. There is a Theatre Royal in Arthur Square. There are also several excellent clubs and societies, social, political, scientific, and sporting; including among the last the famous Royal Ulster Yacht Club.