St. Petersburg's Piers

By Nevin D. Sitler

Commerce, tourism, recreation, and even the quest for eternal youth were the primary incentives for building piers along St. Petersburg's downtown waterfront as early as 1854. For more than 160 years, developers and entrepreneurs pushed wooden or concrete structures from the shoreline to the deeper waters of Tampa Bay. Railroads were behind the early development, allowing cargo loads to be transferred from ship to rail with the least amount of effort. A large and profitable fishing industry evolved. Electrically powered trolley cars shuttled tourists to and from cruise ships. Promoters built bathhouses, spas, and bait houses to entice locals and visitors, and casino gathering halls of various, often controversial, styles were proposed, built, destroyed, loved, and detested. Competing piers were built only 10 feet apart. Mother Nature's elements, including a hurricane, and politics ravaged most of the remaining structures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Apr 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781439651070

Nevin D. Sitler

Nevin Sitler is the Director of Education and Outreach at the St. Petersburg Museum of History and holds a Master's Degree in Florida Studies from the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. He is a contributing author of Florida's Historic Places, The Rivers of the Green Swamp Anthology and provided historical consultation for Florida's Fabulous Lighthouses. Richard (Ric) Sitler is a retired military journalist whose assignments ranged from the 1968 release of the USS Pueblo crew by North Korea to Norman Schwarzkopf's successful 1991 Desert Storm assault to free Kuwait. His eclectic mix of published articles includes interviews with the comic strip creators of Beetle Bailey and Peanuts and hard rocker Alice Cooper, a Texas barbecue at the LBJ Ranch and a backstage chess game with the legendary Ray Charles.

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