Why you should experience Manhattan Beach Pier in Los Angeles, California.
Manhattan Beach Pier is a historic concrete pier where Downtown Manhattan Beach's coastal character meets early twentieth-century engineering, uninterrupted Pacific views and a circular terminus extending deep beyond the shoreline.
Set at the western end of Manhattan Beach Boulevard near Manhattan Avenue and just steps from Metlox Plaza, the pier projects from the compact downtown grid across the broad sand and into the open Pacific. The structure extends more than 900 feet from shore, its reinforced-concrete deck carried above the surf by repetitive concrete supports before widening into the circular geometry at its western end. Globe-topped lamps and pale railings create a strong linear sequence along the deck, with the ocean visible through both sides for nearly the entire crossing. The rounded terminus shifts the pier from a narrow axial walkway into a broad gathering point surrounded on three sides by water, giving the far end a distinctly different spatial form from the approach. The result is a long, disciplined piece of coastal infrastructure whose concrete structure, historic lighting, circular endpoint and uninterrupted relationship with the Pacific make the pier the physical centerpiece of Manhattan Beach.
What you should know about Manhattan Beach Pier.
Manhattan Beach Pier is best known for surviving as Southern California's oldest remaining example of early reinforced-concrete pier construction, the product of an engineering solution developed after earlier structures proved vulnerable to the Pacific. The site's first pier appeared in 1897 or 1898 for the Los Angeles Ocean Power Company, carrying a wave motor intended to generate electricity for Strand lighting before a storm destroyed part of its machinery in 1899. Manhattan Beach later commissioned City Engineer A. L. Harris to develop the present structure, with construction extending from 1917 through 1920 and dedication following on July 5, 1920. Harris developed a circular end that reduced the pier's exposure to wave damage, a distinctive engineering response subsequently cited by California State Parks in recognizing the structure's historical importance. A Roundhouse followed at the terminus in 1922, adding a built focal point to Harris's curved end. A 200-foot extension carried the pier farther west in 1928, but a January 1940 storm removed 90 feet and another storm in 1941 swept away the remaining extension. The surviving pier consequently preserves the core of Harris's 1920 engineering work after more than a century of storms, physical alterations and changing uses along the Manhattan Beach shoreline.
Serious deterioration during the late twentieth century produced a second major chapter centered on preservation and structural reconstruction. A comprehensive 1988 assessment found deficiencies severe enough to require rehabilitation, and Manhattan Beach assumed maintenance responsibility under an operating agreement with the State of California that same year. Moffatt & Nichol developed repair recommendations involving the deteriorated girders and piles, protective treatment for exposed steel and replacement of damaged concrete as municipal leaders chose rehabilitation over complete replacement. Richard Gemigniani designed architectural restoration work intended to recover the pier's 1920s appearance, including classical light standards, globe lamps and a rebuilt end building with French doors, a Spanish-tile roof, copper cupola and weather vane. The major campaign concluded in 1992 after replacement of the deck and substantial portions of the support structure, retaining the historic form through an extensive physical reconstruction. California State Parks recognized the pier in 1995 as California Historical Landmark No. 1018, specifically citing Harris's design and its importance as an early reinforced-concrete pier. Beach volleyball subsequently added another public tradition directly to the structure: winners of the Manhattan Beach Open, a tournament begun in 1960, receive bronze volleyball-shaped plaques installed along the pier as the Volleyball Walk of Fame. The combination of structural preservation and an evolving sporting tradition has kept the century-old pier physically tied to both Manhattan Beach's early resort development and its later international association with beach volleyball.
How to fold Manhattan Beach Pier into your trip.
Manhattan Beach Pier works as the anchor for a local outing connecting Black coastal history, nineteenth-century railroad infrastructure and the preservation of Manhattan Beach's early residential fabric.
Begin at Bruce's Beach, where Willa and Charles Bruce purchased property along the Strand on February 19, 1912 and created a seaside resort for Black Angelenos excluded from numerous Southern California beaches during the Jim Crow era. By 1916 the property included a restaurant, dance hall, changing rooms and showers, and other Black families subsequently acquired nearby lots and built homes. Harassment and discrimination followed, including actions by municipal government, before the city used eminent domain during the 1920s to take the Bruces' property and several neighboring parcels for a proposed public park. Manhattan Beach later formally acknowledged that the municipal actions were racially motivated, adopted an extensive history report in 2021 and unveiled new interpretive plaque language at the park in 2023. Continue to Veterans Parkway, whose green corridor preserves the route of transportation infrastructure dating to 1888, when the Santa Fe Railroad completed a single-track spur between Valley and Ardmore avenues linking the Redondo Beach Wharf with Downtown. The former rail alignment eventually became Manhattan Parkway in 1986, converting the corridor into a 21-acre linear park extending north to south through the city. Manhattan Beach renamed it Veterans Parkway in 1998, preserving the old transportation right-of-way as a 1.5-mile trail. Seven butterfly totems installed among eucalyptus trees along the Mariposa Pathway add a later public-art component to a corridor whose long geometry still follows the railroad route that preceded the modern city around it. Conclude at Beach Cottage Museum, housed in a surviving residential cottage relocated to Polliwog Park in July 1987 after local preservation advocates proposed adapting the building for the Manhattan Beach Historical Society. Historian Jan Dennis helped lead the municipal effort to secure the cottage, and volunteers undertook extensive work after the move, painting the building, laying entrance brickwork and coordinating donated professional labor for roofing, electrical systems and climate control. The cottage subsequently became the repository for local historical artifacts, photographs and community history, giving a modest domestic structure a second life as the city's historical museum. The progression moves from the Bruces' consequential chapter in coastal access through a former railroad corridor that helped connect the developing South Bay with Los Angeles and culminates in the preservation of an early Manhattan Beach cottage, linking property, transportation and domestic architecture across the city's development.
Where your story begins.
Foresyte Travel reveals places that feel extraordinary long before you arrive.
Experience premium editorial crafted for luxury travelers.
