Editing Pier (section)

==Piers of the world==
{{main|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 [[Nieuwpoort, Belgium]] there is a pleasure pier on both sides of the river [[IJzer]].

===Netherlands===
[[File:Pretty when it sleeps.jpg|thumb|right|400px|The [[Scheveningen Pier]]]]
[[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 {{convert|60|m|ft|adj=on}} 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.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/10266257/Britains-best-seaside-piers.html "Britain's best seaside piers"]. The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 June 2015</ref> 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 [[Town Pier, Gravesend]], in [[Kent]], which opened in 1834. However, it is not recognised by the National Piers Society as being a seaside pier.<ref name="gravesend">{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4694642.stm | title = The oldest surviving cast iron pier in the world | publisher = BBC | access-date = March 26, 2006 | date=February 9, 2006}}</ref>

[[File:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg|thumb|[[Brighton Palace Pier]] (pictured in 2011), opened in 1899]]

Following the building of the world's first seaside pier at Ryde, the pier became fashionable at [[seaside resort]]s in England and [[Wales]] during the [[Victorian era]], peaking in the 1860s with 22 being built in that decade.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dobraszczyk|first=Paul|title=Iron, Ornament and Architecture in Victorian Britain: Myth and Modernity, Excess and Enchantment|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|year=2014|isbn=978-1-472-41898-2|page=143}}</ref> A symbol of the typical British seaside holiday, by 1914, more than 100 pleasure piers were located around the UK coast.<ref name="seaside pier"/> 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 [[Margate]], two at [[Brighton]] in [[East Sussex]], one at [[New Brighton, Merseyside|New Brighton]] in the [[Wirral Peninsula|Wirral]] and three at [[Blackpool]] in [[Lancashire]].<ref name="BBC"/> Two piers, Brighton's now derelict [[West Pier, Brighton|West Pier]] and [[Clevedon Pier]], were Grade 1 [[Listed building|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.<ref name="npspiers" /> In 2017, [[Brighton Palace Pier]] was said to be the most visited tourist attraction outside London, with over 4.5 million visitors the previous year.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2017/08/02/brighton-palace-pier-named-as-britains-most-visited-tourist-attraction-outside-london/|title=Brighton Palace Pier named as Britain's most visited tourist attraction outside London|newspaper=Brighton and Hove News|date=2 August 2017|access-date=23 January 2025}}</ref>