Bollard

Bollard (pronounced bol-erd)

(1) In nautical use, a thick, low post, usually of iron or steel, mounted on (1) the deck of a ship and (2) a wharf or the like, to which mooring lines from vessels are attached.

(2) Any small post to which lines, ropes etc are attached.

(3) A short post or block, usually deployed in an array and designed to exclude or divert motor vehicles from a road, lawn, pedestrian space etc, either as part of routine traffic management or as a security or anti-terrorism device (can be permanent or temporary).

(4) In mountaineering, an outcrop of rock or pillar of ice that may be used to belay a rope.

1300s: From the From Middle English bollard, the construct probably the Middle English bole (tree trunk) +‎ -ard.  Bole was a mix of the Old English bula & bulla and the Old Norse boli, both from the Proto-Germanic bulô, from the primitive Indo-European bhel (to blow, swell up).  The –ard suffix was from the Middle English -ard, from the Old French -ard (suffix), from the Frankish -hard (hardy, bold), from the Proto-Germanic harduz (hard); it was used as a pejorative or diminutive suffix).  In 1844 it came to be used (first in the merchant marine, later by the Admiralty) to describe the strong, upright posts built into docks for fixing hawsers for mooring ships and after 1948 it began to be used in reference to the traffic control devices.  By the late 1950s, it was the word of choice to describe any upright device used either as a tethering point for ropes and cords or to restrict or direct vehicular or other traffic.  The security bollard (constructs in concrete or metal sufficiently large to prevent a vehicle from passing) began to appear in numbers as early as the 1940s although the specific phrase wasn’t in wide use until the 1980s in response to the increasing use of cars and trucks as delivery systems for large improvised explosive devices (IED).  Other derived terms include traffic bollard (a conical plastic device in distinctive colors used temporarily to divert motor vehicle traffic or to surround obstacles or dangerous sites) and bollard condition (the state of a ship with a propeller operating only to the extent of permitting near zero-speed maneuvering when moored).  Bollard is a noun; the noun plural is bollards.

Pedestrian crossing in Pompeii, Italy.  Most of the city was buried under volcanic ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

Structurally, bollards were part of Roman urban roadways although the function was different.  Roman pedestrian crossings used essentially the same design as today's zebra crossings except what we see as the white lines were elevated slabs of granite, allowing people to cross the road without their feet having to touch the mud and muck (Roman sewerage systems, though advanced by the standards of Antiquity, were neither as extensive nor as reliable modern machinery) which would often sit or flow through the streets and horse manure was ever-present.  The gap between the slabs was such that the wheels of horse-drawn or hand carts would fit between.

Arco di Settimio Severo (1742), oil on canvas by Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768), a significant painter of the eighteenth century Venetian school.

Built in the imperial capital in the traditional Roman way with travertine, white marble & brick, held together using concrete mixed with their famously sticky cement, the Arco di Settimio Severo (Arch of Septimius Severus) sits at one end of the Roman Forum and was dedicated in 203 to commemorate capture of Ctesiphon in 198 by Lucius Septimius Severus (145–211; Roman emperor 193-211).  Like many dictators (ancient & modern), Lucius had a fondness of triumphal architecture into which his name could be carved, another Arch of Septimius Severus built in Leptis Magna (his city of birth (now in present-day Libya)).  Discovered as a ruin in 1928, it was re-constructed by Italian colonial archeologists and architects.

It’s not known when the line of bollards (visible through the arch in Canaletto’s painting from 1842) was installed although it’s more likely to be an aspect of Renaissance town planning than anything Medieval.  Although speculative, it’s thought the spacing between the bollards indicates the intention was to deny access to heavy traffic (ie anything horse-drawn) while permitting hand carts (an essential part of the home-delivery economy) to pass.

The catwalk re-imagined: Lindsay Lohan walking between the bollards for one of her well-publicized (and not infrequent) court appearances during her "troubled Hollywood starlet" phase, Los Angeles, February 2011.  The legal matters involved set no precedents and it was in that sense not a notable case but the white piece was a Glavis Albino bandage dress from Kimberly Ovitz's (b 1983) pre-fall collection (which listed at US$575) and almost as soon as the photographs appeared on-line, it sold-out so there’s was that.  Here the bollards are used as stringers for the yellow plastic "Police Line: DO NOT CROSS" do not pass" tape and the same function is served by the stanchions used for the velvet ropes which define the limits for photographers at red-carpet events.

Dealing with terrorism is of necessity a reactive business and in Western cities, bollards sometimes appeared within hours of news of the use of motor vehicles somewhere as an instrument of murder, either as a delivery system for explosives or brute-force device to run down pedestrians.  Because of the haste with which the things were deemed needed, it wasn’t uncommon for bollards initially to be nothing but re-purposed concrete blocks (left), often not even painted, the stark functionality of purpose limited to preventing vehicular access which permitting those on foot to pass with minimal disruption.  They’ve since become a fixture in the built environment, often is stylized shapes (centre & right) and urban designers have been inventive, many objects which function as bollards not recognizably bollardish, being integrated into structures such as city furniture or bus shelters.

LEDA Security's rendering of some of the possibilities of bollards as engineered street furniture. Where the space is available, even small green spaces can be installed and, with integrated drip-feed irrigation systems, maintenance is low.  It was beneath one of these installations Barnaby Joyce (b 1967; thrice (between local difficulties) deputy prime minister of Australia 2016-2022) was filmed while sprawled on the ground, conducting a late-night, profanity-laced (though quite friendly) telephone conversation with his (second) wife, the mother of two of his six children.  It was later confirmed Mr Joyce had been drinking.

Hard-working bollards doing their job at the liquor store.