Seaside pleasure pier in , England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.
A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, [
oat docking and access for both passengers and
cargo, and oceanside
recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasur ...
. Bridges, buildings, and
walkways may all be supported by
architectural piers. Their open structure allows tides and currents to flow relatively unhindered, whereas the more solid foundations of a
quay or the closely spaced piles of a
wharf can act as a
breakwater
Breakwater may refer to:
* Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour
Places
* Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia
* Breakwater Island
Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...
, and are consequently more liable to silting. Piers can range in size and complexity from a simple lightweight wooden structure to major structures extended over . In
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
, a pier may be synonymous with a
dock
A dock (from Dutch language, Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The ex ...
.
Piers have been built for several purposes, and because these different purposes have distinct regional variances, the term ''pier'' tends to have different nuances of meaning in different parts of the world. Thus in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, where many ports were, until recently, built on the multiple pier model, the term tends to imply a current or former cargo-handling facility. In contrast, in
Europe, where ports more often use basins and river-side quays than piers, the term is principally associated with the image of a
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
cast iron pleasure pier. However, the earliest piers pre-date the
Victorian age.
Types
Piers can be categorized into different groupings according to the principal purpose.
However, there is considerable overlap between these categories. For example, pleasure piers often also allow for the docking of pleasure steamers and other similar craft, while working piers have often been converted to leisure use after being rendered obsolete by advanced developments in cargo-handling technology. Many piers are floating piers, to ensure that the piers raise and lower with the tide along with the boats tied to them. This prevents a situation where lines become overly taut or loose by rising or lowering tides. An overly taut or loose tie-line can damage boats by pulling them out of the water or allowing them so much leeway that they bang forcefully against the sides of the pier.
Working piers
Working piers were built for the handling of passengers and cargo onto and off ships or (as at
Wigan Pier) canal boats. Working piers themselves fall into two different groups. Longer individual piers are often found at ports with large
tidal ranges, with the pier stretching far enough off shore to reach deep water at low tide. Such piers provided an economical alternative to
impounded dock
Impoundment may refer to:
Water control
* The result of a dam, creating a body of water
** A reservoir, formed by a dam
** Coal slurry impoundment, a specialized form of such a reservoir used for coal mining and processing
* Impounded dock, an en ...
s where cargo volumes were low, or where specialist
bulk cargo was handled, such as at
coal pier A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship.
The typical facility for loading ships consists of a holding area and a system of conveyors for transferring the coal to dockside and loading it into t ...
s. The other form of working pier, often called the finger pier, was built at ports with smaller tidal ranges. Here the principal advantage was to give a greater available quay length for ships to berth against compared to a linear littoral quayside, and such piers are usually much shorter. Typically each pier would carry a single
transit shed the length of the pier, with ships berthing bow or stern in to the shore. Some major ports consisted of large numbers of such piers lining the foreshore, classic examples being the
Hudson River frontage of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, or the
Embarcadero in
San Francisco.
The advent of
container shipping, with its need for large container handling spaces adjacent to the shipping berths, has made working piers obsolete for the handling of general cargo, although some still survive for the handling of passenger ships or bulk cargos. One example, is in use in
Progreso, Yucatán, where a pier extends more than 4 miles into the
Gulf of Mexico, making it the longest pier in the world. The Progreso Pier supplies much of the peninsula with transportation for the fishing and cargo industries and serves as a port for large
cruise ships in the area. Many other working piers have been demolished, or remain derelict, but some have been recycled as pleasure piers. The best known example of this is
Pier 39 in
San Francisco.
At
Southport and the
Tweed River on the
Gold Coast in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, there are piers that support equipment for a sand bypassing system that maintains the
health of sandy beaches and
navigation channels.
Pleasure piers
Pleasure piers were first built in Britain during the early 19th century.
The earliest structures were
Ryde Pier, built in 1813/4,
Trinity Chain Pier near Leith, built in 1821, and
Brighton Chain Pier, built in 1823.
Only the oldest of these piers still remains. At that time, the introduction of steamships and railways for the first time permitted mass tourism to dedicated
seaside resorts. The large tidal ranges at many such resorts meant that passengers arriving by pleasure steamer could use a pier to disembark safely. Also, for much of the day, the sea was not visible from the shore and the pleasure pier permitted holidaymakers to promenade over and alongside the sea at all times.
The world's longest pleasure pier is at
Southend-on-Sea,
Essex, and extends 1.3 miles (2.1 km) into the
Thames Estuary.
The longest pier on the West Coast of the US is the
Santa Cruz Wharf
The Santa Cruz Wharf is a wharf in Santa Cruz, California, United States, known for fishing, boat tours, viewing sea lions, dining, nightlife and gift shops. The current wharf was built in 1914, the last of six built on the site, and is oper ...
, with a length of .
Providing a walkway out to sea, pleasure piers often include amusements and theatres as part of their attractions.
Such a pier may be unroofed, closed, or partly open and partly closed. Sometimes a pier has two decks.
Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier in
Galveston, Texas has a roller coaster, 15 rides, carnival games and souvenir shops.
Early pleasure piers were of wooden construction, with the first iron pleasure pier being
Margate Jetty, opened in 1855.
["200 years of historic British piers: in pictures"](_blank)
The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 June 2015 Margate pier was wrecked in storms in 1978 and never repaired.
The longest iron pleasure pier still remaining is the one at Southend. First opened as a wooden pier in 1829, it was reconstructed in iron and completed in 1889. In a 2006 UK poll, the public voted the seaside pier onto the list of icons of England.
Fishing piers
Many piers are built for the purpose of providing boatless anglers access to fishing grounds that are otherwise inaccessible. Many "Free Piers" are available in larger harbors which differ from private piers. Free Piers are often primarily used for fishing. Fishing from a pier presents a set of different circumstances to fishing from the shore or beach, as you do not need to cast out into the deeper water. This being the case there are specific fishing rigs that have been created specifically for pier fishing which allow for the direct access to deeper water.
Piers of the world
Belgium
In
Blankenberge
Blankenberge (; french: Blankenberghe; vls, Blanknberge) is a city and a municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Blankenberge proper and the settlement of Uitkerke.
On 1 December 2014, Bla ...
a first pleasure pier was built in 1894. After its destruction in the
World War I, a new pier was built in 1933. It remained till the present day, but was partially transformed and modernized in 1999–2004.
In
Nieuwpoort, Belgium there is a pleasure pier on both sides of the river
IJzer
The Yser ( , ; nl, IJzer ) is a river that rises in French Flanders (the north of France), enters the Belgian province of West Flanders and flows through the ''Ganzepoot'' and into the North Sea at the town of Nieuwpoort.
The source of the Yse ...
.
Netherlands
Scheveningen
Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (''wijk'') of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is po ...
, the coastal resort town of
The Hague, boasts the largest pier in the
Netherlands, completed in 1961. A crane, built on top of the pier's panorama tower, provides the opportunity to make a high bungee jump over the North Sea waves. The present pier is a successor of an earlier pier, which was completed in 1901 but in 1943 destroyed by the German occupation forces.
United Kingdom
England and Wales
The first recorded pier in
England was
Ryde Pier, opened in 1814 on the
Isle of Wight, as a landing stage to allow ferries to and from the mainland to berth. It is still used for this purpose today. It also had a leisure function in the past, with the pier head once containing a pavilion, and there are still refreshment facilities today. The oldest
cast iron pier in the world is
Gravesend town pier
The Gravesend Town Pier is located in Gravesend, Kent, Gravesend, Kent. It was designed by William Tierney Clark and built in 1834 on the site of the earlier Town Quay, Gravesend, Town Quay. Over 3 million passengers were served between 1835 and ...
, in
Kent, which opened in 1834. However, it is not recognised by the National Piers Society as being a seaside pier.
Following the building of the world's first seaside pier at Ryde, the pier became fashionable at
seaside resorts in England and
Wales during the
Victorian era, peaking in the 1860s with 22 being built in that decade.
A symbol of the typical British seaside holiday, by 1914, more than 100 pleasure piers were located around the UK coast.
Regarded as being among the finest Victorian architecture, there are still a significant number of seaside piers of architectural merit still standing, although some have been lost, including two at
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
in
East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...
, one at
New Brighton New Brighton is the name of several places, sports teams etc.:
Australia
* New Brighton, New South Wales, a town near Ocean Shores
Canada
* New Brighton, Calgary, Alberta, a neighborhood
* New Brighton (Gambier Island), a settlement in British ...
in the
Wirral and three at
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
in
Lancashire.
Two piers, Brighton's now derelict
West Pier
The West Pier is a ruined pier in Brighton, England. It was designed by Eugenius Birch and opened in 1866. It was the first pier to be Grade I listed in England and Wales but has become increasingly derelict since its closure to the publi ...
and
Clevedon Pier, were Grade 1
listed. The
Birnbeck Pier in
Weston-super-Mare is the only pier in the world linked to an island. The
National Piers Society gives a figure of 55 surviving seaside piers in England and Wales.
See also
*
Boardwalk
*
Breakwater
Breakwater may refer to:
* Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour
Places
* Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia
* Breakwater Island
Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...
*
Dock
A dock (from Dutch language, Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The ex ...
*
Jetty
*
List of piers
*
Seaside resort
*
Wharf
References
Further reading
*Turner, K., (1999), ''Pier Railways and Tramways of the British Isles'', The Oakwood Press, No. LP60, .
*
External links
The Piers ProjectNational Piers SocietyDetails on UK Piers including Webcams
{{Authority control
Coastal construction
Marine architecture