AT A GLANCE
Why go?
At 1,850 feet, Huntington Beach Pier stretches deeper into the Pacific than almost any other public pier on the West Coast, making it the beating heart of "Surf City USA." Free to walk from 5 a.m. until midnight, it is the city's most photographed landmark and the place where the boardwalk, the beach, the surf and a string of shops and restaurants all converge.↗↗
More than a viewpoint, the pier is a working piece of California surf history. A wooden structure here in 1904 gave way to a record-breaking concrete pier in 1914, and after storms, earthquakes and a 1992 rebuild, the red-roofed landmark at its seaward end now anchors everything from the world's biggest surfing contest to a no-license fishing scene and some of the best sunsets on the Orange County coast.↗↗
Why the Pier Matters
The story begins before the city even existed. The Huntington Beach Company drove a 1,000-foot wooden pier out to sea in 1904, but a violent storm swallowed much of it by 1910. Voters then bonded for a concrete replacement, and when it was re-dedicated in June 1914 it claimed the title of the longest and highest concrete pleasure pier in the United States—legendary surfer George Freeth gave a surfing demonstration for the crowd. Some 20,000 people came for the opening weekend, and a marble cornerstone engraved "Municipal Pier 1914" was laid with a time capsule meant to be opened a century later.
