Reopened in the summer of 2012, the Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier stretches 1,130 feet out over the Gulf of Mexico from Galveston, Texas. The pier you see carries a roller coaster, fifteen rides, carnival games and souvenir shops, and it stretches 1,130 feet (340 m) out over the Gulf of Mexico waters. Its soft opening was held on May 25, 2012, but this spot's story goes farther back: the original Pleasure Pier stood here from 1943 until 1961, when Hurricane Carla destroyed it.
That earlier pier offered rides, an arcade, an aquarium, concessions, a large ballroom called the Marine Ballroom, and fishing at the end. Later the site hosted the USS Flagship Hotel, an over-the-water hotel built in 1965 and demolished after Hurricane Ike in 2008. Before the recent renovation there had been almost no maintenance in over seventy years, leaving exposed reinforcing steel, accelerated corrosion, and concrete spalling at piles, beams, joists and reflective overhead flat plates.
Because of that, extensive structural concrete restoration was needed, and repairs were eventually completed using shotcrete. Listen for echoes of the Marine Ballroom and the old arcade beneath the rides rolling above the Gulf today.