Pier

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Pier (disambiguation).
A wooden pier in Corfu, Greece

A pier is a raised structure that rises above a

dock
.

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

Victorian age
.

Types

Piers can be categorized into different groupings according to the principal purpose.[1] 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

San Francisco
.

The advent of

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, there are piers that support equipment for a sand bypassing system that maintains the health of sandy beaches and navigation channels
.

Pleasure piers

Brighton Chain Pier, built in 1823.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4] The world's longest pleasure pier is at Southend-on-Sea, Essex, and extends 1.3 miles (2.1 km) into the Thames Estuary.[2] The longest pier on the West Coast of the US is the Santa Cruz Wharf, with a length of 2,745 feet (837 m).[5]

Providing a walkway out to sea, pleasure piers often include amusements and theatres as part of their attractions.[4] 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.[6]

Early pleasure piers were of wooden construction, with the first iron pleasure pier being Margate Jetty, opened in 1855.[7] Margate pier was wrecked in storms in 1978 and never repaired.[7] 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.[8]

Fishing piers

Many piers are built for the purpose of providing boatless anglers access to fishing grounds that are otherwise inaccessible.[9] 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[10] which allow for the direct access to deeper water.

Piers of the world

Main article: List of piers

Belgium

In Blankenberge 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

IJzer
.

Netherlands

Scheveningen, 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 60-metre (200 ft) 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

Gravesend town pier, in Kent, which opened in 1834. However, it is not recognised by the National Piers Society as being a seaside pier.[12]

Following the building of the world's first seaside pier at Ryde, the pier became fashionable at

West Pier 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.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Piers". National Piers Society. 2006. Archived from the original on September 29, 2008. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d "The expert selection: British seaside piers". No. 1 August 2014. Financial Times. 15 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10.
  3. ISBN 978-1445641584
    .
  4. ^ a b c "A very British affair - the fall and rise of the seaside pier". BBC News. 16 June 2015.
  5. ^ "California Pier Statistics, Longest Piers". seecalifornia.com. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
  6. ^ Aulds, T.J. (January 28, 2012). "Landry's Corp. is close to revealing plans". News Article. Galveston Daily News. Archived from the original on January 31, 2012.
  7. ^ a b "200 years of historic British piers: in pictures". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 June 2015
  8. ^ "ICONS of England - the 100 ICONS as voted by the public". Culture 24 News. 15 June 2015.
  9. ^ "Landscape Design Book" (PDF). University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. 2013. Retrieved January 6, 2015.[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ VS, Marco (2021-03-21). "Pier Fishing Rigs: 6 Common Types of Rigs for fishing from a Pier". Pro Fishing Reviews. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  11. ^ "Britain's best seaside piers". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 June 2015
  12. ^ "The oldest surviving cast iron pier in the world". BBC. February 9, 2006. Retrieved March 26, 2006.
  13. ISBN 978-1-472-41898-2
    .

Further reading

External links

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