Editing Pier (section)

==Types==
Piers can be categorized into different groupings according to the principal purpose.<ref name="npspiers">{{cite web | url = http://www.piers.co.uk/piers.htm | title = Piers | publisher = [[National Piers Society]] | date = 2006 | access-date = February 24, 2012 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080929075523/http://www.piers.co.uk/piers.htm | archive-date = September 29, 2008 }}</ref> 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===
[[File:Under the pier, Nikiski.jpg|thumb|Out-of-use industrial bulk cargo Pier, [[Cook Inlet]], Alaska.]]
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 [[tide|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]]s where cargo volumes were low, or where specialist [[bulk cargo]] was handled, such as at [[coal pier]]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 City|New York]], or the [[The Embarcadero (San Francisco)|Embarcadero]] in [[San Francisco, California|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&nbsp;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 Spit, Queensland|Southport]] and the [[Tweed River (New South Wales)|Tweed River]] on the [[Gold Coast, Queensland|Gold Coast]] in [[Australia]], there are piers that support equipment for a sand bypassing system that maintains the [[coastal management|health of sandy beaches]] and [[Navigability|navigation channels]].

===Pleasure piers===<!-- This section is linked from [[Isle of Wight]] -->
[[Image:The jetty, Margate, Kent, England, ca. 1897.jpg|thumb|right|[[Old master print|Print]] of [[Margate Jetty|a Victorian pier in Margate]] in the English county of Kent, 1897]]Pleasure piers were first built in Britain during the early 19th century.<ref name="seaside pier">{{cite news|title=The expert selection: British seaside piers|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1f76dcdc-1718-11e4-b0d7-00144feabdc0.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1f76dcdc-1718-11e4-b0d7-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|agency=Financial Times|issue=1 August 2014|date=15 June 2015}}</ref> The earliest structures were [[Ryde Pier]], built in 1813/4, [[Trinity Chain Pier]] near Leith, built in 1821, [[The Royal Suspension Chain Pier|Brighton Chain Pier]], built in 1823.<ref name="seaside pier" /> and [[Margate Jetty]] 1823/24 originally a timber built pier.
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 resort]]s. The large tidal ranges at many such resorts meant that passengers arriving by pleasure steamer could use a pier to disembark safely.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gladwell |first=Andrew |date=2015 |title=London's Pleasure Steamers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YP0mCgAAQBAJ |location= |publisher=Amberley Publishing |chapter=Introduction |isbn=978-1445641584 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news|title=A very British affair - the fall and rise of the seaside pier|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14387516|agency=BBC News|date=16 June 2015}}</ref> [[Southend Pier|The world's longest pleasure pier]] is at [[Southend-on-Sea]], [[Essex]], and extends 1.3 miles (2.1&nbsp;km) into the [[Thames Estuary]].<ref name="seaside pier" /> The longest pier on the West Coast of the US is the [[Santa Cruz Wharf]], with a length of {{convert|2745|ft|m|0}}.<ref name="seecalifornia">{{cite web|url=http://www.seecalifornia.com/piers/california-pier-statistics.html|title=California Pier Statistics, Longest Piers|publisher=seecalifornia.com|access-date=2014-02-10}}</ref>

Providing a walkway out to sea, pleasure piers often include amusements and theatres as part of their attractions.<ref name="BBC"/> 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|Galveston]], Texas has a roller coaster, 15 rides, carnival games and souvenir shops.<ref name="Dailynews">{{cite web|last=Aulds|first=T.J.|title=Landry's Corp. is close to revealing plans|url=http://galvestondailynews.com/story/288954|work=News Article|publisher=[[The Daily News (Texas)|Galveston Daily News]]|date=January 28, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120131115728/http://galvestondailynews.com/story/288954|archive-date=January 31, 2012}}</ref>

Early pleasure piers were of complete timber construction, as was with Margate which opened in 1824. The first iron and timber built pleasure pier [[Margate Jetty]], opened in 1855.<ref name="margate">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/10988204/200-years-of-historic-British-piers-in-pictures.html?frame=2985575 "200 years of historic British piers: in pictures"]. The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 June 2015</ref> Margate pier was wrecked by a storm in January 1978 and not repaired.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2018/01/13/the-destruction-of-margate-jetty-and-the-great-storm-of-january-1978/ | title=The destruction of Margate jetty in the great storm of January 1978 | date=13 January 2018 }}</ref><ref name="margate"/> 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.<ref>{{cite news|title=ICONS of England - the 100 ICONS as voted by the public|url=http://www.culture24.org.uk/art362437|agency=Culture 24 News|date=15 June 2015}}</ref>

===Fishing piers===
Many piers are built for the purpose of providing boatless anglers access to fishing grounds that are otherwise inaccessible.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/clue/Documents/Public/LandscapeDesignBook_FORS385-Fall2013.pdf | title = Landscape Design Book | publisher = University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point | access-date = January 6, 2015 | date = 2013 }}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> 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<ref>{{Cite web|last=VS|first=Marco|date=2021-03-21|title=Pier Fishing Rigs: 6 Common Types of Rigs for fishing from a Pier|url=https://profishingreviews.com/pier-fishing-rigs/|access-date=2021-10-10|website=Pro Fishing Reviews|language=en-US}}</ref> which allow for the direct access to deeper water.