From a nearly three mile Navy trestle to a Ferris wheel that’s the third tallest in the country, New Jersey’s piers are where the state’s coastal identity has always been written. Here is every one worth knowing, mapped from the Raritan Bay down to Cape May County.
The Complete Guide to Every Pier Along the Jersey Shore
Whether the plan is a quiet sunset walk, a serious afternoon of surfcasting, or a full day of roller coasters over the sand, New Jersey’s piers have shaped the coastline’s identity for well over a century. These structures have been built, flattened by hurricanes and fires, and rebuilt again and again, and today they range from strictly private fishing clubs to record setting amusement complexes that draw visitors from well outside the state. Here is the full run of them, organized north to south.
Bayshore Piers
The quieter, working waterfront stretch of the coast, where a federal installation shares the bay with some of the best community fishing in the state.
Patriotic
Naval Weapons Station Earle Pier
A three pronged finger pier stretching an astonishing 2.9 miles into Raritan Bay, wide enough to carry both trains and trucks resupplying the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet. It is among the longest finger piers on Earth and visible from orbit, though access is strictly limited to active duty, reserve, and retired military and current or former NWS Earle employees and contractors.
Keansburg Fishing Pier
A 2,000 foot wooden landmark and the ultimate barometer for Raritan Bay angling, complete with a daily recorded fishing report line. A section collapsed under ice damage last winter, but most of the pier remains open daily. Nearby, the Keyport Fishing Pier, the pier at Bayshore Waterfront Park in Port Monmouth, and the fishing pier at Atlantic Highlands Municipal Harbor round out the bay’s community fishing scene.
Sandy Hook to Belmar
A stretch defined by architectural silhouettes, music history, and one pier that has never let a stranger walk out on it.
Photogenic
Belmar Fishing Club Pier
Known up and down the coast for its length and unusually tall pilings, this pier creates one of the Shore’s most striking silhouettes from the horizon or from underneath. The Belmar Fishing Club owns and operates it as a private club, and membership has been closed with no new additions to the waiting list.
History
Asbury Park Convention Hall & Paramount Theatre Pier
Once among the greatest music venues in the country, having hosted Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, the Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen. Long running structural and safety issues have closed the Paramount Theatre and the main Convention Hall auditorium indefinitely, though the connecting Grand Arcade still houses shops and bars. For live music today, the action has shifted across the street to the Stone Pony, its Summer Stage, and the Wonder Bar. Nearby, Ocean Grove’s cross shaped pier remains closed after severe structural issues, while a new pier is under construction in Long Branch, targeted for a 2027 opening on the site of the first Atlantic Ocean fishing pier, which dates to 1879.
Point Pleasant Beach to Seaside Heights
The heart of the Shore’s boardwalk nightlife and its most famous comeback story.
Jenkinson’s Boardwalk & Amusement Park
A family focused boardwalk anchored by the two level Adventure Lookout ropes course, a classic train ride, the Shark Escape coaster, and a year round aquarium, alongside multi tier arcades and mini golf. After dark, adults head to Jenkinson’s Club, or Jenks, and neighboring Martell’s Tiki Bar, both extending directly off the boardwalk with live music and crowds that linger well into the night.
Comeback
Casino Pier & Breakwater Beach
Storm story credibility to match its thrill rides, given that its Star Jet Coaster famously ended up submerged in the ocean after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Today the rebuilt pier features the Hydrus steel coaster, the Skyscraper ride, midway games, a state of the art arcade, and a multi level go kart track, with Breakwater Beach Waterpark right across the walkway offering major slide complexes and a lazy river. Entry to the pier is free, with rides paid individually.
Atlantic City & Absecon Island
The undisputed heavyweight of Jersey Shore piers, plus a members-only fishing club and a pier still searching for its identity.
Famous
Steel Pier
Stretching 1,000 feet over the Atlantic, Steel Pier has hosted everything from diving horses to vaudeville legends since opening in 1898. Its current headline attraction is The Wheel, a 227 foot observation wheel with 40 climate controlled gondolas, the third tallest in the country. Thrill seekers gravitate to the Slingshot, which launches riders 225 feet in the air at more than 100 miles an hour, while the pier also offers a helicopter tour, the Crazy Crab spinning coaster, and a beachside Tiki Bar with live music.
Romantic
Ventnor City Fishing Pier
A quieter blend of serious angling and coastal charm just south of Atlantic City. The far end holds a paid public fishing platform, but locals know the real draw sits midway, before the admission gate, where benches invite couples and solo strollers to watch sunrise or unwind at day’s end with the sea breeze. Nearby, the Central Pier Arcade and Speedway competes with Steel Pier on family entertainment, while the long struggling Million Dollar Pier, most recently home to ACX1 Studios before its bankruptcy, continues searching for a new purpose. The private, members only pier of the Angler’s Club of Absecon Island in Margate rounds out the island, accessible only through sponsorship by an existing member.
Ocean City to Avalon
Where a 1928 concert hall still out-books modern venues, and two of the oldest fishing clubs in the country guard their piers closely.
Musical
Ocean City Music Pier
Built in 1928 as a concert hall, this architectural landmark still runs a full summer concert series today, hosting tribute bands, musical theater, and orchestral performances with guest artists including Lee Greenwood, the Righteous Brothers, and Broadway’s Lea Salonga. Nearby, the Ocean City Fishing Club, the oldest continuously operating fishing club in the nation, built its own private pier at 14th Street and the Boardwalk back in 1916, distinct from the public Ocean City Fishing Pier on the bay side. Farther south, the private Avalon Fishing Pier, built in 1933 and extended in 2016, does not actively seek members or public visitors.
The Wildwoods
The largest family owned pier system in the world, a resort style newcomer, and a fishing pier stranded on dry land.
Amusing
Morey’s Piers
Spanning 18 acres across six beach blocks, Morey’s is the largest family owned boardwalk amusement pier system in the world, split into Surfside Pier, Mariner’s Pier, and Adventure Pier. Between them sit classic wooden and steel coasters including the Great Nor’Easter and the Great White, a towering Ferris wheel, a walk through Ghost Ship, and two full water parks, Raging Waters and Ocean Oasis Water Park and Beach Club, delivering some of the most complete seaside amusement offerings anywhere on the East Coast.
Coolest
Seaport Pier
Trading roller coasters for resort vibes, Seaport Pier anchors the boardwalk with a sun splashed pool, cabanas, a lively stage, and a sprawling bar scene that turns the pier into a mini festival with ocean views once the sun goes down.
Saddest
Wildwood Crest Fishing Pier
Originally built in 1919 by the private Wildwood Crest Fishing Club and acquired by the borough in 2006, this pier, also known as the Heather Road Fishing Pier, no longer lives up to its name. Decades of sand accretion have left the structure stranded on dry land, unable to reach the water at all. With Cape May County funding secured, the borough plans to extend the deck in the coming years so it once again sits above the ocean.
New Jersey’s piers have survived hurricanes, fires, ownership changes, and long stretches of neglect, and yet new ones keep rising in their place, from the Long Branch pier now under construction to the extension planned for Wildwood Crest. Whatever draws a visitor to the water, whether it is the pull of a fishing line, the drop of a coaster, or simply a bench at sunset, there is a pier somewhere between Sandy Hook and Cape May built for exactly that.
