WHARF (AS. hwerf, breakwater, Icel. hvarf, shelter, OSwed. Swed. cart, shipbuilder's yard; connected with Goth. hwairban, AS. /terror fan, ME. wherve, Teel. ',vertu, OSwed. hrerfra, hwerfan, wervan, werban, Ger. werben, to turn, go to and fro: probably connected with Gk. Kapaataubr, karpalimos, swift). In law, a Wharf is a structure on the bank or margin of navigable waters to which vessels can be moored and from which they may be loaded and unloaded. Wharves are usually constructed by driving piles into the bank and bed of a body of water and covering them with a floor of planks, over which a sort of warehouse is sometimes erected if there is sufficient traffic to warrant the expense. A wharf should project out far enough to insure a sufficient depth of water on its front to render it possible for vessels to be moored alongside it at any stage of the tide. On the Western rivers in the United States it is common to build wharf boats which are moored to the banks of the river, and which, of course, are always ac cessible at any stage of the water. This is ren
dered necessary by the fact that such rivers are subject to great freshets and extremely low water at different seasons of the year.
Owing to a doctrine of the common law that the soil of tide waters between high and low water mark belongs to the State, a riparian owner along such waters cannot establish a wharf without permission from the State, as such a structure would otherwise constitute a public nuisance. The State may grant to a city the permission to establish wharves upon its water front, as was clone by the State of New York to the city of New York. In such eases a city may be authorized by the Legislature to condemn lands for the erection of public wharves, the revenue from which shall be paid into the city treasury. The number of public wharves, their locations, and the rates of wharfage which may be charged are fixed and regulated by stat utes in most of the United States.