LANDING-STAGE, a structure erected upon the banks of a river, quay, or dock, for the purpose of facilitating the discharge of goods, or the landing of passengers, from the vessels frequenting the particular port or locality under consideration. Landing-stages under these cir cumstances may either be fixed, as in the majority of docks, where they are provided with hand, steam, or hydraulic cranes, or with other machinery for facilitating the operations of unloading ; or they may be floating, as in the various passenger stations upon the Thames, or upon the Mersey, Frith of Forth, kc. The variable conditions of tho loads to be discharged, in the first case, and of the rise of tide, or of the variations of the surface lines in the second, introduce such countless modifications into the details of landing stages, that it becomes im possible to lay down any general rule with respect to them ; it may suffice, therefore, to refer to the landing stages at Liverpool ; at Blackfriars Bridge, London ; at the Albert Docks, Liverpool, tho Regent's Canal Docks, and the Victoria Docks, as illustrations of this class of structures in sonic of its more striking modifications. In
passenger-landing stages there should be provision made for booking, and for checking the arrival of travellers; and In goods landing stages there should be ample means for weighing, measuring, sampling, or packing the goods; in both of them, the vessels to be unloaded should be able to lie out of the ordinary course of the ships frequenting the particular place, and bo able to cast off easily into the open water when required. The Brighton chain pier, and the landing stage of a some what similar character erected by the late Sir I. Brunel at the island of Bourbon, may be referred to as amongst the most remarkable landing stages on exposed coasts.