Folkestone Harbour was built in stages between the 1840s and early 1900s around the old fishing port of Folkestone. Over the years passenger and freight ferries and cargo ships operated from the port to various destinations, the best-remembered link being that between Folkestone and Boulogne. By the late 1990s ferry operators Sea Containers Ltd, who then also owned Folkestone Harbour, decided that ferry operations had become unsustainable.