Originally called Selintar, the financial and port district now known as Tanjong Pagar was once a fishing village along the southern coastline of Singapore. In the 1830s, various nutmeg and fruit plantations were established in the area by the Europeans. However, it was only in 1859 that the first dry dock was built along the coast by Captain William Cloughton. Following the founding of the Tanjong Pagar Dockyard Company in 1864 by a group of European and Asian private investors, various port facilities that were erected soon transformed the area into one of the main thoroughfares for the loading and unloading of sea cargo. The bustling port facilities at Tanjong Pagar are now managed by the Port of Singapore Authority, the present-day successor to the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company after the latter was bought over by the government in 1905.
