Editing Pier

{{Short description|Raised structure in a body of water}}
{{Other uses}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2024}}
[[File:Korfu (GR), Korfu, Altstadt -- 2018 -- 1156.jpg|thumb|330x330px|A wooden pier in [[Corfu]], Greece]]
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]], [[boat]] docking and access for both passengers and [[cargo]], and oceanside [[recreation]].  Bridges, buildings, and [[walkway]]s may all be supported by [[Pier (architecture)|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 (structure)|breakwater]], 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 {{convert|1600|m|abbr=on}}. In [[American English]], a pier may be synonymous with a [[Dock (maritime)|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 [[North America]] and [[Australia]], 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 [[Transport in Europe|Europe]], where ports more often use basins and river-side quays than piers, the term is principally associated with the image of a [[Victorian era|Victorian]] [[cast iron]] pleasure pier which emerged in [[Great Britain]] during the early 19th century. However, the earliest piers pre-date the [[Victorian age]].

==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.

==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>

==See also==
*[[Boardwalk (entertainment district)|Boardwalk]]
*[[Breakwater (structure)|Breakwater]]
*[[Dock (maritime)|Dock]]
*[[Jetty]]
*[[List of piers]]
*[[Seaside resort]]
*[[Wharf]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Turner, K., (1999), ''Pier Railways and Tramways of the British Isles'', The Oakwood Press, No. LP60, {{ISBN|0-85361-541-1}}.
*{{Cite book | last1=Wills | first1=Anthony | last2=Phillips |first2=Tim |title=British Seaside Piers | publisher=English Heritage |year=2014 | location=London | isbn=9781848022645 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Piers}}
{{EB1911 poster|Pier}}
{{Wiktionary}}
*[https://paintingsofpiers.com/ The Piers Project]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070925043506/http://www.piers.co.uk/ National Piers Society]
*[http://www.the-pier.co.uk Details on UK Piers including Webcams]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Piers| ]]
[[Category:Coastal construction]]
[[Category:Marine architecture]]