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Ryde Pier offered sight of
U.S. warship Theodore Roosevelt
Ryde Pier is almost half a mile long, and from its head one can enjoy watching shipping activities in The Solent.
This month (April 2009), for example, we were privileged to see America's largest warship, USS Theodore Roosevelt, anchored at Stokes Bay, near Portsmouth. Apparently the 88,000-tonne, 4.5-acre (1.8-hectare) vessel is far too big to dock at the Royal Navy Base!
Our first glimpse of USS Theodore Roosevelt
Having secured a parking place, we were able (with binoculars) to enjoy a much better view of the ship. And when a Wightlink ferry sailed by, we could certainly appreciated her true size!
Ryde pier was built between 1812 and 1814 during the reign of Queen Victoria who lived nearby for many years at
Osborne House.
The pier was built because the sandbanks at Ryde extend out to sea for almost a mile - and that meant that boats could only approach the town at high tide.
It was the brainchild of local businessmen and, when finished in 1814, it became the very first promenade pier in Great Britain. The new structure soon became immensely popular and in its hey-day, two steamers could berth there, one each side, offering trips across The Solent to Portsmouth and Southampton or even as far afield as Brighton.
Sadly, we no longer enjoy steamer trips from here, but we do have the popular
Wightlink
FastCat, a catamaran service for foot-passengers only, which runs to and from Portsmouth Harbour. We also have a regular train service which runs from the Wightlink terminus at the end of the pier to Shanklin, the end of the line.
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