It was intended to serve ferry traffic on the routes between Edinburgh and the smaller ports around the Firth of Forth, and was built during a time of rapid technological advance.

It was well used for its original purpose for less than twenty years before traffic was attracted to newly developed nearby ports, and it was mainly used for most of its life for sea bathing.

It was destroyed by a storm in 1898; a building at the shore end survives, much reconstructed, as a pub and restaurant called the Old Chain Pier.

Traffic across the firth has been important for centuries;[nb 3] as well as having industry and agriculture, Fife lies on the shortest route from Edinburgh to the north of the country.

[6] Travel by sailing boat and stagecoach was slow and unreliable; Walter Scott in The Antiquary (1816) described the journey from Edinburgh to cross at Queensferry as being "like a fly through a glue-pot".

[19] The pier was proposed by Lieutenant George Crichton of the London, Leith, Edinburgh and Glasgow Steam Navigation Company.

He cited pile-supported piers at Yarmouth, Ostend and Kronstadt which had been successful for long periods based on this design.

This comprised three 209-foot-long (64 m) wooden spans suspended 10 feet (3.0 m) above high water from lengths of wrought-iron chain connecting cast-iron standards to the shore.

[35] The chain was made of eye bolts about 10 feet (3.0 m) long, which, uniquely among Brown's designs, varied in thickness according to the load they were expected to carry.

[36][37][nb 7] The long eye bolts were joined by shorter linking plates,[38] and hung in a catenary 14 feet (4.3 m) from the tops of the standards.

[23][29][43] The French engineer Claude-Louis Navier inspected the pier in 1821, and reported that the structure was strengthened against wind loads in 1822, following its behaviour during storms in its first winter.

Three hundred people walked from the Trinity Hotel to the pier, and boarded a steamboat for a brief excursion, while a band played from a second vessel.

The opening was attended by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, the local magistrates, as well as Crichton, Ramsay, Scott, Stevenson, and the other proprietors of the company.

[48] In its first year the pier made a profit of £200,[49][nb 10] and there was a proposal to improve the facilities for passengers and other visitors, including having telescopes to view the ferries.

[52] In 1822 the organisers of King George IV's visit to Edinburgh considered using the pier for his landing, but following protests they chose Leith harbour instead.

[49] James Anderson accomplished the difficult and dangerous task of replacing the timbers while maintaining the tension in the chains to keep the bridge standing.

[49] In mid-1830 the Royal George carried 8,168 passengers to Dysart, Leven and Largo in a two-month period, as well as 1,181 pleasure trippers who did not land in Fife.

The Lion and the Stirling Castle rescued all 220 passengers from the ferry before it sank in shallow water west of the pier, 40 minutes after departure.

[69] In 1836 the steam packet from the Chain Pier to Dundee was advertised as carrying mail, including parcels and light goods.

[74] The latter was chosen and in 1838 the first phase of the Duke of Buccleuch's new harbour opened at Granton,[75] causing Chain Pier traffic to fall even further.

[77] The Alloa Steam Packet Company bought the pier in 1840,[78] and they leased it to John Greig, who installed changing cubicles.

In 1845 a reduced fare crossing on the Royal Tar was advertised; steerage from Trinity to Leven or Largo was now 1/2,[nb 17] and connecting trains from Scotland Street were available.

[95] "Deep diving" involved retrieving objects from the bottom in 20 feet (6.1 m) of water[96] then surfacing through a floating lifebuoy.

[104] Some locals were concerned that the pier's opening on Sundays for swimming would distract people from going to church; the availability of beer was also noted.

[108] On 26 July 1879, 3,000 spectators lined the shore to see the Scottish Swimming Championship, which took place between the Chain Pier and Granton breakwater.

[113] In 1869, as an experiment into using electric light for lighthouses, Thomas Stevenson had an underwater cable installed from the eastern breakwater of Granton harbour.

An operator on the harbour wall, with a switch and a Bunsen cell (an early form of battery), controlled a light on the end of the Chain Pier from half a mile (800 m) away.

[128] In 1871 the Royal Humane Society awarded James Crichton a badge and sash for saving two lives in a week, the second from the Chain Pier.

[133][nb 25] The pier was badly damaged on 18 October 1898 by a storm which lasted four days and caused great destruction all over Scotland.

In 2007 the City of Edinburgh Council forced it to take down large awnings it had installed without planning permission following the smoking ban the previous year.