Misplaced Pages

#672327

40-545: The seawall was built to provide level access to Seattle's piers and supports the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Alaskan Way itself, which is a surface street. Completed in 1934, the seawall was built on top of wood piling . Despite efforts to prevent marine pest damage when the seawall was designed, after the 2001 Nisqually earthquake , the Seattle Department of Transportation found that gribbles had consumed all

80-547: A Victorian school room, a colliery disaster, the Second Boer War and (on the top floor) a complete pub transported from Hope Street and reconstructed by shopping centre developers. The Wigan Pier Theatre Company used these displays to remind present generations of "The Way We Were"—not always a happy life. The attraction closed on 20 December 2007. Gibson's Warehouse is a Victorian cotton warehouse, originally built in 1777, re-built in 1984 as The Orwell at Wigan Pier ,

120-618: 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. 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

160-623: 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. Following the building of the world's first seaside pier at Ryde, the pier became fashionable at seaside resorts in England and Wales during

200-647: 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 , or the Embarcadero in San Francisco . The advent of container shipping , with its need for large container handling spaces adjacent to

240-471: 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 . 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

280-556: 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 complete timber construction, as was with Margate which opened in 1824. The first iron and timber built pleasure pier Margate Jetty , opened in 1855. Margate pier was wrecked by a storm in January 1978 and not repaired. The longest iron pleasure pier still remaining

320-451: 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. In Blankenberge a first pleasure pier was built in 1894. After its destruction in the World War I ,

360-429: A strong marketing tool." Others regard this connection as disappointing, considering it an insinuation that Wigan is no better now than it was at the time of Orwell's writing. The canal scene from The Road to Wigan Pier describes the area as such: "I remember a winter afternoon in the dreadful environs of Wigan. All round was the lunar landscape of slag-heaps , and to the north, through the passes, as it were, between

400-645: Is The Pier, Wigan, houses Keep Britain Tidy , an environmental charity. Wigan Pier Nightspot was a very popular night club on the southern bank of the Canal, from the late 80's until it closed in December 2011. The club played music predominantly of the Scouse House/Bounce genre at weekends. Also through the 1990's, an Alternative music night (Often referred to as 'Indie' night) was held on Wednesdays, and during summer months

440-566: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore , typically supported by piles or 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 walkways may all be supported by architectural piers . Their open structure allows tides and currents to flow relatively unhindered, whereas

SECTION 10

#1732837019673

480-623: 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 , with a length of 2,745 feet (837 m). 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

520-458: Is funded by a bond measure that was approved by Seattle voters in the November 2012 general election. Construction began in 2013 and was completed in 2017, more than a year late and costing $ 410 million. 47°36′16″N 122°20′21″W  /  47.60444°N 122.33917°W  / 47.60444; -122.33917 This article about a building or structure in the U.S. state of Washington

560-431: Is situated on the canalside. Number 1 Wigan Pier, won a Civic Trust Award—the architect being Michael Stroud Churchward when it refurbished in the early part of the 1980s. Trencherfield Mill is a former cotton mill, located across the road from Wigan Pier converted into luxury apartments in 2009. It still contains the massive working steam engine which was kept in the new development. There are several bridges across

600-477: 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. 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

640-613: 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 Margate , two at Brighton in East Sussex , one at New Brighton in

680-735: The Wirral and three at Blackpool in Lancashire . Two piers, Brighton's now derelict 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. Wigan Pier Wigan Pier is an area around the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Wigan , Greater Manchester , England, south-west of

720-498: The health of sandy beaches and navigation channels . 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, Brighton Chain Pier , built in 1823. and Margate Jetty 1823/24 originally a timber built pier. Only the oldest of these piers still remains. At that time,

760-500: The Council refuse centre is now). This gantry was quite a structure, as it had to span the Douglas valley , crossing the river, the canal and the main rail line to Southport. As the delayed train waited for the signals to change, one of the travellers remarked "where the b... hell are we?" and the reply became the basis for the immortal joke about Wigan's Pier. George Formby, Sr. perpetuated

800-481: The canal. Bridge #51 Pottery Changeline is a roving bridge , one which swaps the tow path from one side of the canal to the other, usually in such a way as to allow the horse pulling the barge to pass easily and without disconnecting its tow-rope. Bridge #50 Seven Stars Bridge is adjacent to the Seven Stars public house (now demolished), taking its name from The Plough constellation. Elizabeth House, whose address

840-469: The chosen object of the joke. The tippler became the favoured location when people subsequently wanted to see it. There are references to it in songs such as George Formby Junior's On the Wigan Boat Express . "The Ballad of Wigan Pier", written by local journalist Jack Winstanley, is a comic song written in the 1980s in the style of George Formby Junior. It was recorded by The Houghton Weavers and

SECTION 20

#1732837019673

880-432: The colour of raw umber, the bargemen were muffled to the eyes in sacks, the lock gates wore beards of ice. It seemed a world from which vegetation had been banished; nothing existed except smoke, shale, ice, mud, ashes, and foul water." Today, the slag heaps have been removed or landscaped with trees, the factories are closed or converted to housing, and the canal is only used for recreational boating and fishing. The pier

920-582: 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 , there are piers that support equipment for a sand bypassing system that maintains

960-564: The image of a Victorian cast iron pleasure pier. However, the earliest piers pre-date the Victorian age . 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

1000-453: 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

1040-508: The iron from the tippler (a mechanism for tipping coal into the barges) being sold as scrap. A telling of the origin of what really was 'Wigan Pier' goes that in 1891, an excursion train to Southport got delayed on the outskirts of Wigan not long after leaving Wallgate Station . At that time a long wooden gantry or trestle carried a mineral line from Lamb and Moore's Newtown Colliery on Scot Lane, to their Meadows Colliery in Frog Lane (where

1080-518: The joke around the turn of the century in the music halls in Wigan, adding that when he passed the Pier he noticed the tide was in (referring to the constant flooding in the low-lying area). Formby died in February 1921, and with the demise of the collieries in the area, the gantry had long passed out of existence. Therefore when people looked for the Pier, the tippler for coal wagons at the canal terminus became

1120-477: The more solid foundations of a quay or the closely spaced piles of a wharf can act as a 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 1,600 m (5,200 ft). In American English , a pier may be synonymous with a dock . Piers have been built for several purposes, and because these different purposes have distinct regional variances,

1160-440: The mountains of slag, you could see the factory chimneys sending out their plumes of smoke. The canal path was a mixture of cinders and frozen mud, criss-crossed by the imprints of innumerable clogs , and all round, as far as the slag-heaps in the distance, stretched the 'flashes'—pools of stagnant water that had seeped into the hollows caused by the subsidence of ancient pits. It was horribly cold. The 'flashes' were covered with ice

1200-536: The original location. The former Wigan Terminus Warehouses were built in the eighteenth century and refurbished in the 1980s. Boats could moor inside the building and off-load directly into the warehouse. A warehouse with covered loading bays, converted into a museum of Victorian life (often mistakenly thought to be Wigan Pier), and the home to The Way We Were museum, was part of the Wigan Pier Experience museum and exhibition centre. The exhibition featured

1240-461: The pier stretching far enough off shore to reach deep water at low tide. Such piers provided an economical alternative to impounded docks where cargo volumes were low, or where specialist bulk cargo was handled, such as at coal piers . 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

Alaskan Way Seawall - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-603: 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 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

1320-495: 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

1360-453: The spot where it used to stand is no longer certain." Some have embraced the Orwellian link, as it has provided the area with a modest tourist base over the years. "It seems funny to celebrate Orwell for highlighting all our bad points, but Wigan wouldn't be anywhere near as famous without him," said the Wigan Pier Experience's manager, Carole Tyldesley. "In the end George Orwell has proved to be

1400-510: 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 Europe , where ports more often use basins and river-side quays than piers, the term is principally associated with

1440-427: The town centre. The name has humorous or ironic connotations since it conjures an image of a seaside pleasure pier , whereas Wigan is inland and a traditionally industrial town. The original " pier " at Wigan was a coal loading staithe , probably a wooden jetty, where wagons from a nearby colliery were unloaded into waiting barges on the canal. The original wooden pier is believed to have been demolished in 1929, with

1480-423: The wooden supports in some places. The Washington State Department of Transportation states that there is a 1-in-20 chance that it could be shut down by an earthquake within the next decade, and so plans have been underway to replace both seawall and viaduct. The seawall rebuild project was estimated to cost $ 350 million as part of an overall waterfront redevelopment budgeted in 2012 at $ 1.07 billion. The project

1520-480: Was at the end of a narrow gauge tramway from a colliery. The wagons would be brought right to the edge of the canal to be tippled so that their contents went straight into the waiting barges. The original wooden pier is believed to have been demolished in 1929, with the iron from the tippler being sold as scrap. Because of the more recent pride in the area's heritage, a replica tippler, consisting of two curved rails, has been erected although several hundred metres from

1560-444: Was featured in the title of George Orwell 's The Road to Wigan Pier , which dealt in large part with the living conditions of England's working poor. In response to a critic, Orwell insisted "He [Orwell] liked Wigan very much—the people, not the scenery. Indeed, he has only one fault to find with it, and that is in respect of the celebrated Wigan Pier, which he had set his heart on seeing. Alas! Wigan Pier had been demolished, and even

1600-417: Was regularly performed by them. Its lyrics perpetuate the idea of Wigan having a pier in the style of seaside resorts like Blackpool, and encourage you to look for it. References also include a mythical visit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II , fishing for tripe using locally produced sweets Uncle Joe's Mint Balls and refer also to George Formby Senior as the origin of its mythical existence. In 1937, Wigan

#672327