  Each of the local isometry groups arising in 3d gravity can be viewed as the
group of unit (split) quaternions over a ring which depends on the cosmological
constant. In this paper we explain and prove this statement, and use it as a
unifying framework for studying Poisson structures associated with the local
isometry groups. We show that, in all cases except for Euclidean signature with
positive cosmological constant, the local isometry groups are equipped with the
Poisson-Lie structure of a classical double. We calculate the dressing action
of the factor groups on each other and find, amongst others, a simple and
unified description of the symplectic leaves of SU(2) and SL(2,R). We also
compute the Poisson structure on the dual Poisson-Lie groups of the local
isometry groups and on their Heisenberg doubles; together, they determine the
Poisson structure of the phase space of 3d gravity in the so-called
combinatorial description.
