by Paul R. Spitzzeri
One of the most important elements of Los Angeles’ remarkable rise as a major metropolis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the development of the port that had to be manufactured, with enormous resources dedicated to it, in a locale that did not otherwise have the natural features and contours such as at such California harbors as San Diego and San Francisco.
Encompassing the old port location, dating to pre-American times, of San Pedro at the base of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Wilmington, established by Phineas Banning as New San Pedro on the cusp of what had been a plain marked by a significant amount of sloughs and marshes, the Port now embraces some 7,500 acres with more than 40 miles of waterfront and is the busiest in the Western Hemisphere. It is the 17th largest on Earth (10 of those ahead of it are in China.)
Thanks to the efforts of Banning and others in Los Angeles, which was undergoing its first, albeit modest compared to those that followed, boom during the period, the first federal financial investment in the Port came in the early 1870s with an allocation for the construction of a breakwater. A quarter of a century or so later, the “Free Harbor Fight” pitted the Port against the Southern Pacific’s Santa Monica in the quest for recognition as the main harbor in the region and the Port was selected to be where future federal efforts were to be concentrated.
Another major landmark came in 1909-1910, when the previously independent towns of San Pedro and Wilmington were annexed, connected by the roughly twenty-mile “shoestring” running north, to the City of Los Angeles. City planning and expenditures involved the expansive and expensive enterprise of constructing channels and terminals, as well as removing natural islands and creating man-made ones.
The first City wharf was finished in 1914 just as the Panama Canal completion was set to revolutionize shipping worldwide, though the First World War has significant effects on sea-borne commerce in much of the world. Following the war, a new era for the Port began and the Roaring Twenties meant a significant increase in business transacted through it, including ever-rising exports of citrus, oil and other local products. The seemingly boundless enthusiasm and optimist that marked the period would soon encounter the stark, shocking reality of the Great Depression, but, in early 1927 few had any inkling of what was to come.
The featured artifacts from the Homestead’s holdings for this post are the Port’s annual report, issued by the City’s Board of Harbor Commissioners, for the fiscal year from July 1925 to June 1926, and a 10 March 1927 letter from the secretary and general manager, Arthur G. Arnoll, of the powerful Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the role of which in boosting and promoting the region during the time cannot be overestimated.
Under the heading of “Los Angeles And Her Efficient Harbor,” Arnoll’s letter to recipients of the report, which
we hope will be interesting for a number of viewpoints, for it will be remembered that Los Angeles Harbor is mad-made and also enjoys the distinction of bring the second largest American port [following that in New York City] in point of tonal tonnage handled as well as fifth in rank of foreign commerce.
Arnoll added that there were almost 6,700 steam-powered vessels that arrived during 1926 and over 150 lines that made it “a regular port of call.” Included with the report, though not when it was added to the Museum’s collection, were “recent major industrial announcements,” almost certainly from the Chamber “which tend to further illustrate the importance of this city as an economic center” including information about its lower costs for manufacturers and distributors for Pacific Coast markets.
Board President Walter B. Allen’s name was attached to the report and it was noted in a general description that the port had two parts, the outer (breakwater) at San Pedro and the inner at Wilmington with the width of channels and depth of points in the harbor provided. In a brief history, it was observed that it was “practically a new port and its development has shown tremendous strides since the close of the [First] World War.” Acknowledging San Pedro’s history as a port of call, it was added that “it was not classes as a harbor of any importance” until the annexation.
There was discussion of the pre-American history of the harbor area, including the account of Richard Henry Dana in his famous Two Years Before the Mast concerning his 1835 visit and his surprise to find the rudimentary port so far from Los Angeles, not to mention that, as paraphrased, he wrote that “the region [was] the most desolate place he had ever seen.” Strangely, it was continued that “In 1880, the Spanish pueblo [it had been six decades since the Spanish era, and over three since the Mexican period] had a population of 11,000 inhabitants,” but the point was the tremendous population growth, though an error was added that there were 1 million persons in 1900—it was not far over 100,000.
Attention then turned to the “Growth of the Port,” with it observed that, by 1910, “a city of half a million population,” this, however, was not reached until about 1920, “had built [up] without special attention being given to its port possibilities.” This meant that “the progressive people of Los Angeles [then] realized that the city’s future growth would largely depend upon taking advantage of water transportation to build up its commerce.”
It was in the first half of the teens that substantial work was done with channelization and the establishment of terminals before the aforementioned completion of the wharf. It was from November 1919, with the end of the war, further work on the port and the increase in business there that conditions were such that it was claimed that “there has never in the commercial history of the world been anything like this growth.” As proof, it was noted that under 150,000 tons of exports, principally lumber, were shipped at the end of the ear, but this rose, in four years, to 2.5 million.
Much of this was attributed to the phenomenal development of the region’s oil industry (this is when the Temple family made their fortune from the lease of their land at the Montebello field) and, because of a lack of storage facilities and refineries, crude had to be sent by pipes to the port and have it shipped out. This led to “the result that the sea lanes from Los Angeles to Panama became a veritable procession of tankers, and Los Angeles oil out the Panama Canal on a profit paying basis because of the tolls the tankers paid to the United States Government [the U.S. maintained total jurisdiction on the canal until 1979 and Panama has overseen it since 1999].”
With respect to federal facilities, it was recorded that almost $9.5 million in funds were allocated to the breakwater, jetties and dredging, while “the Government also reclaimed for defensive purposes about five acres of tide and submerged lands adjoining the Fort MacArthur Military Post,” while there was consideration of taking another fifty acres of underwater property where a channel was to be widened. This approved work also was to include dredging to lower the depth of an existing channel, provide for a new one, and other work as well as to extend the breakwater to Long Beach “when certain conditions have been fulfilled.”
As to “Wharves and Piers,” it was recorded that the city’s wharves were of typical build, comprising some 4.5 miles of wooden piles covered in creosote and decking, with nearly 2,000 feet made of reinforced concrete and another 7,400 feet of a combination of the two types. Private wharves were mostly of wood and totaled 24,335 feet. The harbor board owned and operated 22 sheds, aggregating just above 13,000 feet and with widths from 44 to 120 feet, with two more modern and “designed especially for Oriental trade.” It was added that facilities were reached by rail and paved roads.
Concerning “Warehouse Facilities,” a reinforced concrete structure of six basements and a basement and spanning nearly a half million square feet and with “all modern freight handling devices” was on Pier #1 on the outer harbor. It was not only plenty big for merchandise storage but had sprinklers so that insurance was low, while a belt-line rail system made for easy transport and it was “found particularly advantageous by certain shippers who distribute to interior points” for cost-saving. Run by the Union Terminal Warehouse Company under contract with the City, the warehouse also had a portion for imported merchandise under a federal customs bond.
A recent innovation were cotton compresses installed because of the dramatic growth in cotton raising in the region, with an initial one being so heavily used that a second soon followed and it was added that “this increase in the facilities caused a corresponding increase in the volume of cotton shipped through the port so that it has become the center for the concentration of California and Arizona cotton.” The compresses were also operated by Union Terminal firm.
The shipments of lumber, as noted above, were a major part of the operations of the port due to the the “vast amount . . . used in constructing the fastest growing city in the world—Los Angeles” and a table showed that seven lumber companies had yards not too far under 200 acres, while a half-dozen more firms had facilities at the port, as well.
For fire protection, two boats plied the harbor with being the biggest and best-equipped in the country. The vessel was built by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corporation for $214,000 and had a telescoping tower that could reach more than 40 feet over the water line and five nozzles throughout its 100-feet length, each capable of sending out 3,000 gallons a minute and a “Foamite” apparatus. Beyond the craft, there were ten land units at the port.
Discussing oil and the facilities for loading it, the report observed that
The development of oil in the vicinity of Los Angeles has been the greatest factor of our harbor’s remarkable growth. Twenty-three million tons of cargo were handled during the past year, and of this amount the greatest percentage in tonnage was oil. For three years oil has held leading place in tonnage. This heavy exportation of oil has been due to an exceptional production, and to the fact that in the early stages of local oil development there was a shortage of storage, and the refining capacity of Southern California was inadequate to take care of the crude product.
Since 1920, especially, the discovery of enormous supplies of crude at such fields as Huntington Beach, Santa Fe Springs and Signal Hill/Long Beach meant this issue of storage and refining led to the matter of sending the product directly to the port for transport. It was added that “a great many of the world’s tankers have been required to carry the oil” to domestic and foreign markets, while much of the imports comprised of pipe and other material for local fields.
In the last several years, it was recorded that “millions of dollars have been expended by the large oil companies in building refineries and tank farms near the harbor” and more in building loading facilities at the port. The expectation, therefore, was that “oil production, oil refining and oil exportation will continue to be one of the valuable commodities of harbor tonnage for years to come.” A century later, this business is still very much in evidence, but rapidly accelerating climate change and the future of the fossil fuel industry is a core challenge for the future.
A loading facilities section included descriptions of those of seven firms (Associated; California; General and its subsidiary General Pipe Line; Julian; Pan American; Shell and Union) with information on the size of the lines, capacities of tanks and other information. Befitting the importance of the oil industry with the port, there are several photographs and tables along the many illustrations in the report, to which we’ll return tomorrow with part two.