Since it was built in 1906, the 3,300 foot Navy Pier has evolved from a dock for Lake Michigan freighters to a Navy training center during WWII to facilities for the University of Illinois and, after 1976, into fifty acres of restaurants, rides, theaters, stages, exhibition space and public walkways. At the end of the pier is the Landshark Beer Garden and, behind it, the twin towers of “The Hall” that contains the Grand Ballroom.