Worldport L.A.
from Mud-Flats to Worldport
1542, a Portuguese Navigator, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, discovered a small backwater of mud flats, which he named the "Bay of Smokes". He could not have dreamed of the transformation his discovery would undergo in the future. It was to become the Port of Los Angeles. Situated 5,000 miles from the UK, 35 miles from Hollywood, and 20 miles from Disneyland, it is now known as "Worldport LA". With a total of 3,700 land-acres, and the same figure over water, it combines the ports of San Pedro, Wilmington, and Long Beach.
However, the port did not just evolve. It was bitterly fought over by rich and powerful men from Long Beach, San Pedro, and Santa Monica. Each claimed that they could offer the greatest promise for a deep-water port of the future. The arguments ranged back and forth for ten years until 1896 when the committee reconfirmed that the new port would be at San Pedro. The first barge-load of stone for the breakwater was dumped into the sea in April of 1899. It was to develop into the Port of Los Angeles that we know today. Currently undergoing a vast expansion programme' it is the largest port on the West Coast of the USA, and one of the largest in the world. Its statistics are quite staggering. The port now receives over 3,000 vessels a year. In May of 2000 it handled more than 400,000 containers.
The magic figure of 1,000,000 cruise passengers was exceeded in 1998, with this figure increasing each year. Surprisingly, some 60% of cargo brought into the port will stay west of the Rockies. With 35 miles of waterfront, Worldport has 26 major cargo terminals, and 6 container terminals. A $26m investment in a new 47-acre Container Transfer Facility on Terminal Island, is currently used mainly by Japan's NYK and Taiwan's Evergreen Lines. Here, containers are unloaded directly onto railcars for immediate distribution.
Working in the outer harbour, the FLORIDA is the largest cutter-suction dredge of its kind in the United States and was used to dredge some 26m cubic yards of soil. This was used as landfill for the construction of the new 265-acre Pier 300. American President Lines moved onto phase one in 1996. Another investment of $200m resulted in the new 120-acre Los Angeles Export Terminal on pier 400. Handling coal and petroleum coke it can take vessels of up to 250,000-tons deadweight. The Pier 400 project involves an investment of some $600m. For those interested in matters maritime, and particularly for the ship photographer, Worldport LA has much to offer.