"Much more stable than Cecil's pier that is on pipes into the pond bottom that goes across his pond."
That thing looked wicked scary to me when I looked at the pictures of his drained pond. I'm sure it must be ok, as he obviously uses it. And the fact that it goes all the way across the pond is fabulous.
But if it were me, when the pond was drained, I would have been out there doing some X bracing or some earth anchors and cable in a couple spots in the middle.
But that is just looking at a picture, and it may be way more stable than it looks in the picture. In pictures, some of the suspension bridges that trucks drive across don't look too sturdy so pictures can fool.
