Bittersweet emotions were in the air last week as ground was broken on the i360 viewing tower.

The “vertical pier” marks the start of a new era – but the end of an old one as the West Pier seems to be increasingly consigned to history.

FINN SCOTT-DELANY looks back.

COUNCILLORS, officials and business leaders gathered at the site of the old West Pier to herald a new era last week.

The i360 viewing tower, described as a vertical pier, has been depicted as a modern replacement of the crumbling wreck.

The tower will even use old features such as the toll booths as ticket offices, with the architect saying a piece of heritage would be brought back to life.

The pier, affectionately known as Sussex's Grand Old Lady, was built some 150 years ago by engineer Eugenius Birch, costing £27,000 – more than £1 million in today’s money.

Opening in 1866, it was 1,115 ft long with kiosks, windshields and rotunda screen, lamp columns decorated with entwined serpents placed around perimeter and lit by gas, with motif said to derive from the Royal Pavilion music room.

In 1875 the central section was widened with a covered bandstand encouraging some 600,000 people to visit and pay an entry toll of two pence.

In 1893 the pier head was widened and a large pavilion built, to be used first as a 1,400 seat concert hall.

A savage storm in 1896 destroyed the Chain Pier, located close to the site of the Palace Pier, and wreckage driven into the West Pier caused £6,000 worth of damage.

In 1900 seven sailors from HMS Desperate drowned in bad weather as they approached the pier.

In 1903 the pavilion was converted into a theatre with seating for 1,000 people and in 1916 the pier was widened further and a Concert Hall built.

The completion of the Concert Hall marked the end of the half century of building the West Pier.

There were no other significant additions and the structure was essentially the same as 1916.

After the outbreak of war in 1939, the Pier closed for security reasons and in 1940 a section was removed to prevent enemy landing.

In readiness for D-Day, mines around the pier were cleared, but one exploded in the face of bomb disposal Officer Ken Revis.

He survived, albeit blinded and until his death in 2001 was a West Pier Trust board member.

The blast also destroyed a kiosk which was later replaced by a helter-skelter.

In 1944 an RAF Hawker Typhoon fighter hit the pier and crashed onto the beach, leaving the pilot with head injuries.

In 1965 the West Pier Company was bought by AVP Industries Ltd, then owners of the Bedford and Metropole hotels.

It was used as location for the film Oh, What a Lovely War! directed by Richard Attenborough.

In 1969 owner AVP sought permission to demolish the southern end but it was made Grade II* to protect it.

By 1970 the southern end was closed to the public because a lack of maintenance had made it unsafe.

But the prospect of demolition was met with a robust campaign with seafront marches and a 5,000 signature petition organised by John Lloyd.

The entire pier was closed to the public in 1975 for safety reasons – and was never opened again.

After The West Pier Company was put into liquidation, the pier was passed into the ownership of the Crown Estate Commissioners and the West Pier Trust was formed and given sole right to operate the pier.

In 1982 it was granted Grade I listed status and in 1983 the Crown Estate Commissioners sold the pier to the Trust for £100.

Various grants helped restore the first 100ft root end which re-opened in 1987.

The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £950,000 for emergency works and in 1998 approved a grant of £14.2m towards restoration.

But before the project began it was frozen after the Palace Pier owners challenged the lottery award at the European Commission.

The project was back on in 2002 but disaster struck the next year as the Concert Hall partially collapsed while arson attacks destroyed the Pavilion and Concert Hall.

The funding was withdrawn in 2004 and later that year a freak summer storm left the Concert Hall totally collapsed.

It was estimated that a staggering £20 million would have been needed to restore the pier to its former glory.

While the West Pier Trusts accepts it is now impossible to restore the structure back to its former glory, it maintains a new pier could be built using funds from the i360.