As The National turns five, photo editor Brian Kerrigan looks at some of the past and present images of Abu Dhabi.
On weekends leading up to the launch of The National I sometimes found myself on the beach at Le Meridian Hotel. I'm not much of a beach person really, but it did allow me to clear my head looking out at the water and wondering what else I needed to think about in building a newspaper for Abu Dhabi.
Regularly my eyes would lock on a ship in the middle distance. It looked like a small oil tanker to me, but upon further inspection I could see it was something quite different. From it's bow a non-stop flow of wet sand pumped, slowly but surely building an island.
Someone arriving in 2013 would be hard pressed to believe Al Maryah Island (and Al Reem, Saadiyat, Yas, the list goes on) were mostly low, undeveloped sandy islands only 5 years ago.
As part of our marking 5 years of publishing The National, we offer you a small look at the city that blossomed all around us.
