DennisD

I made this shot in Edmunds, Washington, on the shoreline of Puget Sound. I converted it into a black and white image, well, just because it suggested to me in post that it wanted to be one.
My question: Can anyone, especially someone in the Washington State Ferry Business, educate me as to what these huge foreground structures are? What they are called and what their purpose is?
I like to be able to explain to folks what it is I have photographed and, despite fairly liking this image as it is, I would not be able to answer the question: What the heck are those huge things in the foreground?
My best guess is that they are moorings for one of the 27 or so working ferry boats that operate in Puget Sound, perhaps in a storm situation. But, admittedly, it is just an uneducated guess.

Thanks very much and great appreciation goes out to the person who can give me the goods on these rascals. After which, you just may see this image posted on my flickr photostream. Am I allowed to mention/promote it here? There is no monetary gain involved. Reviewing is free.

flickr.com/photos/dennisdiehl Thanks for any and all help in the "What and What for Category".

Dennis Diehl/Stevensville, Montana

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

They are a bit too dark and perhaps a bit out of focus.
Can you lighten them so we can see the details of what they are.
Thank you in advance.
Very interesting shot and does look very good in black and white, good call.
The lightening would be just to help identify as the dark for show looks nice.

Fotoserj Loc: St calixte Qc Ca

Where was that picture taken in edmunds

cascoly Loc: seattle

they're pilings, usually helping to guide the ferry and stabilize it when docked; these may be from an abandoned landing

you can also find them individually on rivers where they're used to tie up log rafts on their way to sawmills

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

You can see their relative positions to an arriving ferry, beginning at about minute two of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7dny2cvYmo

.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

They are refrigerators for seals.🤓

out4life2016 Loc: Bellingham, Washington

If I’m not mistaken those were actually piling from an old cannery that use to be there they are used to guid the boats in and stabilize them when docked. I’ve actually done some scuba diving around those and the rock wall next to the current landing some years back. Beautiful coloring under the water there and lots of great sea life along the rock wall as well.

DennisD

Thanks to all who wrote with answers both seemingly accurate and very humorous. I believe that I made my photo from the shoreline at Edmunds, because we did not actually take the ferry over to Kingston until the next day. (That next day, I took a great many photos from the ferry itself.)

I think "cascoly" has nailed it here because these pilings are no longer near a place where the ferry now docks. I think that they may have been in use when the docking port was in a nearby area.

Thanks very much to all. For all fans of fine art photography, I invite you to take a peek at my photostream
on the flickr website. It contains over 1,000 of my best images over the last 50 years. I'm reasonably sure that you will enjoy the images and the experience. Caution: Do not attempt to view too many of these images at any one time, in any one sitting. Your eyeballs could fall out from over-exposure. But, please, do enjoy the sampling in small doses. Thanks very much.
Dennis / Stevensville, Montana/Not a piling anywhere here in the Bitterroot Valley

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Reminds me of the Chester(PA) ferry that took us over the Delaware river to New Jersey and the beaches. Now replaced by a bridge.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Nice b&w, but I have no idea what they are.

Brokenland

Oil Drilling Platform that was never completed.

OhD Loc: West Richland, WA

They are called dolphins, and those are in EdmOnds, WA. Dolphins are clustered pilings placed to protect ships and other structures from each other, commonly near docks where the dolphins take the brunt of hard ferry landings. They also are used for moorings in areas where there is no room for barges and such to swing on an anchor.
I suspect that they are built with the top ends of the wooden piles (an individual log driven into the ground is a pile, a multiplicity of piles is piling, as if English wasn't weird enough already) lashed together with cable so they can flex more than they could if rigidly connected, thereby enabling the dolphin to absorb a lot of repeated impact and dissipate the energy safely. Modern large-scale versions like the ones pictured use more elaborately engineered superstructure that is more predictable and durable than the cable lashing originally used in the NW (the big-boy version of baling wire or duck tape).
This note nearly broke spell-check...

photogeneralist Loc: Lopez Island Washington State

Dennis The dark vertical tubes are pilings arranged into groups called dolphins The have several purposes but their main use is as a catcher's mitt type function then a ferryboat noses into the terminal. In some places they are also used to moor ferryboats when not in service but even then, barring mechanical breakdowns, that is only for a few hours a night.

cascoly Loc: seattle

despite the pilings we've had a number of ferry accidents, including dropping a car while docked - the most notorious was a grounding when the captain took the boat too close to shore to show off for his girlfriend. then there was the skipper of a 500 ft freighter that hit & destroyed the bridge to west seattle. in an unrelated incident several years later, his wife shot him, then dismembered him with an axe.

https://www.historylink.org/File/8137

Texagander

Naw. Porto potties.