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.
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 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 dress was a Kimberly Ovitz (b 1983) Glavis (which listed at US$575) and almost as soon as the photographs appeared on-line, it sold-out so there’s that. Here the bollards are used as stringers for the yellow plastic "do not pass" tape and the same function is served by the uprights 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.
