Full Circle,
Check out this link after reading below to see what I am talking about with regard to crossing cables.
http://www.midwestlake.com/pond_lake_management/docks.phpWe like to criss-cross galvanized or stainless cable to prevent lateral movement and to prevent the dock from moving out into the pond. To prevent it from coming in, we secure the front edge of the gang way on each corner with a small loop of cable that goes around the angle iron and through the eye of an auger-type earth anchor that we screw in to the bank. We do this as close to each corner of the gangway as possible and then cover with gravel to dress it up and conceal it.
Earth anchors are also used for the main criss-crossed cable supports but they are typically secured in the water instead of on the bank. Again, this is just to conceal them.
Another option is to only secure the front edge of the gangway, either by attaching it 6"x6" posts which are secured 3' plus into the earth with concrete and upward another 2-3', or we've actually poured a concrete footer/pad on the shoreline and embedded a bracket that sticks out of the pad on the side facing the water. This heavy duty bracket then gets pinned to a bracket that we've welded onto the gangway. Both of these methods work great in most pond applications and do not usually require support cables. It depends on how long the gangway is, but there is usually not too much side to side stress with these types of systems in a pond. Doing this without cables in a large lake with heavy fetch and boat wake is a different story.
You can also drive steel pipes off each corner of the dock through sleeves and into the pond bottom, but my opinion is that it doesn't look good. Further, with time it always seems the pipes end up leaning.
