 To the north was an industrial area where foundries, timber saw mills, slate works, a flour mill, a soda-pop plant and gasworks were constructed.Porthmadog's role as a commercial port, already reduced by the opening of the "Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway" in 1867, was effectively ended by the First World War, when the lucrative German market for slate collapsed.The 19th-century wharves survive, but the slate warehouses have been replaced by holiday apartments and the harbour is used by leisure yachts.