Claim: A mole has uses as a dock.

thumb | right | Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton , England . The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century   A pier is a raised structure in a body of water , typically supported by well-spaced piles or pillars . Bridges , buildings , and walkways may all be supported by piers . Their open structure allows tides and currents to flow relatively unhindered , whereas the more solid foundations of a quay or the closely spaced piles of a wharf can act as a breakwater , and are consequently more liable to silting . Piers can range in size and complexity from a simple lightweight wooden structure to major structures extended over 1600 metres . In American English , pier may be synonymous with dock .   Piers have been built for several purposes , and because these different purposes have distinct regional variances , the term pier tends to have different nuances of meaning in different parts of the world . Thus in North America and Australia , where many ports were , until recently , built on the multiple pier model , the term tends to imply a current or former cargo-handling facility . In Europe in contrast , where ports more often use basins and river-side quays than piers , the term is principally associated with the image of a Victorian cast iron pleasure pier . However , the earliest piers pre-date the Victorian age .