Portland, Maine harbor: Why are all those pylons grouped together?

[fstuff1]

 

Why are all those wooden pylons grouped together?

 

[Janet524]

Remnants of old piers.

[GTJ]

I am not certain if you're an obvious question or something more subtle. The obvious response is that those are the supports for the wharf that had previously occupied the site, used by the Grand Trunk Railway. You can see the wharf in the 1956 and 1970 aerial views at Historic Aerials, on map plate 6 of the 1896 Sanborn fire insurance map of Portland hosted at the Library of Congress, and this picture book of Portland's eastern waterfront. Is there something more subtle that you asking (e.g., the reason pylons are grouped as they are for supporting but a single wharf)? The Grand Trunk Railway later became part of the Canadian National Railway, which spun off the line to the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad. The portion of the route south of Auburn was sold to the state in 2015, and within central Portland narrow gauge tracks were laid for use by the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Company & Museum for its passenger excursion trains. But the once busy waterfront no longer has any serious railroading activity, and so no longer any need for those railroad wharves.

[fstuff1]

54 minutes ago, GTJ said:

I am not certain if you're an obvious question or something more subtle. The obvious response is that those are the supports for the wharf that had previously occupied the site, used by the Grand Trunk Railway. You can see the wharf in the 1956 and 1970 aerial views at Historic Aerials, on map plate 6 of the 1896 Sanborn fire insurance map of Portland hosted at the Library of Congress, and this picture book of Portland's eastern waterfront. Is there something more subtle that you asking (e.g., the reason pylons are grouped as they are for supporting but a single wharf)? The Grand Trunk Railway later became part of the Canadian National Railway, which spun off the line to the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad. The portion of the route south of Auburn was sold to the state in 2015, and within central Portland narrow gauge tracks were laid for use by the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Company & Museum for its passenger excursion trains. But the once busy waterfront no longer has any serious railroading activity, and so no longer any need for those railroad wharves.

 

thx.

it was just the obvious answer i was looking for.

 

my understanding of pylons were for tying ships to it.

so was puzzled to see all those pylons grouped together

[GTJ]

8 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

it was just the obvious answer i was looking for.

In older harbors pilings near the shore are usually the remnants of former wharves and piers. But with the Grand Trunk Railway having been absorbed into the Canadian National Railway in 1923, the importance of Portland as being an all-weather port for Canada diminished. As the need diminished, its wharves in Portland were decommissioned, leaving the pilings behind (and later the tracks themselves were pulled, but for the narrow gauge tracks in their place). You will see the same thing in other older harbors. For example, in New York City the New York Central used to have massive railroad yards and piers on the west side of Manhattan, surrounding the present-day Manhattan Cruise Terminal. Such was also the case on the New Jersey side in Weehawken. All of that has been removed and the land redeveloped, but you can still find many of the pilings remaining.

[shof515]

New York City also has similar old pilling along the waterfront too

[chengkp75]

On 9/13/2022 at 5:02 PM, fstuff1 said:

 

thx.

it was just the obvious answer i was looking for.

 

my understanding of pylons were for tying ships to it.

so was puzzled to see all those pylons grouped together

If you look under all the other piers, in Portland and elsewhere, there will be a similar "convention" of piles that hold up those docks.  You wouldn't tie a ship to a single pile like those, mooring "dolphins" tend to be clusters of piles supporting a small deck structure, or tilted towards each other ("teepee" style) to form a structure that can withstand lateral loading (pull from ship's lines) better than just a single pole sticking straight up.