Long Beach, California

The southern California city of Long Beach is an important port and industrial area for Los Angeles County. Long Beach rose from the ashes, almost literally, of another city. Originally founded as Willmore City in 1882, today the city is a major center for oil production.

Landscape

Located on San Pedro Bay, Long Beach serves as the main port for Los Angeles, which lies 25 miles to the north. The 50-square-mile city actually has less than six miles of coastline, mostly taken up by the large Long Beach Marina and other industrial sites. This means that Long Beach's beach isn't quite as long as the name implies.

Also, since the city's coast faces directly south, Long Beach receives almost none of the waves that make neighboring areas like Huntingdon Beach popular among surfers and tourists.

The city boasts nearly 100 parks, and its five golf courses make Long Beach one of the biggest municipal golf systems in the United States. The city is connected to Los Angeles by both a light rail line and a channel that leads to LA's harbor.

People

In 2022, a US Census Bureau estimate placed the population of the city of Long Beach at 451,307 people. Only San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose are more populous.

While a majority (43.9 percent) of Long Beach's population is white, the city's largest minority is the Hispanic/Latino community, which accounts for 44.1 percent of the population. While most of these residents are of Mexican descent, the city also has significant Puerto Rican and Cuban communities.

Outside of these dominant groups, the population of Long Beach is quite diverse. African Americans are the city's next largest minority, accounting for 12 percent of the population. Asians, including a large Cambodian community, make up 12.7 percent of the population.

Since 1985, the city's Mural and Cultural Arts Program has taken advantage of Long Beach's diversity, improving and revitalizing neighborhoods in the process. The program teams city youth with artists to create large-scale murals throughout the city, in an effort to build job skills, deter graffiti, and beautify Long Beach.

Economy

The Port of Long Beach is the centerpiece of the city's economy. The busiest port on the West Coast in terms of cargo tonnage, this container port serves domestic and international commercial ships, oil tankers, and even ocean liners. Significant funding has been dedicated to improving the facility's overall size and capacity. In 2024, the Port of Long Beach (POLB) began a $1.5 billion rail yard expansion and upgrade project that had been planned for more than a decade. The Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility will more than triple the capacity of the port to handle on-dock rail cargo. The rail yard depot will be able to fuel and service up to thirty locomotives at once. The expected completion date of the facility, which was projected to create more than one thousand jobs during construction, was 2032. The Port of Long Beach has incorporated plans to adapt to expected effects of global climate change, including sea level rise and more extreme weather, in its building, maintenance, and upgrade projects.

Oil was first discovered in Long Beach in 1921, and since that time it has been an important part of the local economy. The city supports oil-drilling operations, both on- and off-shore, and also manufactures oil well equipment.

Other products manufactured in Long Beach include aerospace and automotive parts, electronics and computer components, and furniture.

Beginning in the 1940s, the US Navy operated a naval station and shipyard in Long Beach. Long a staple of the local economy, the station closed in 1994, eliminating thousands of jobs. However, a shipyard and drydock remain open at the site.

Each year, approximately four million tourist visit Long Beach, and spend more than $300 million in the city.

Landmarks

In addition to its sandy beaches and world-class port and marina, Long Beach is home to a number of popular tourist attractions and landmarks. Many of the city's retail and entertainment attractions may be found along the waterfront.

The Queen Mary Seaport is home to one of the city's largest attractions: the Queen Mary itself, the largest luxury ocean liner in the world. Purchased from the Cunard Company in 1967, the ship is docked at a 55-acre site that includes a hotel, restaurants, and a marketplace.

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach exhibits approximately 12,000 different marine animals in dozens of different habitats representing the Tropical, Northern, and Southern California/Baja regions of the Pacific Ocean. Local museums include La Casa de Rancho Los Cerritos, with exhibits on regional history, and the Long Beach Museum of Art.

Some of the city's more offbeat attractions include the giant mural entitled "Whaling Wall XXXIII: Planet Ocean." This mural, completed in 1992 by marine artist Robert Wyland, was a gift to the city, and covers the outer wall of the cylindrical Long Beach Arena. Measuring 116,000 square feet, the 10-story-tall painting depicts a variety of ocean life, and required 7,000 gallons of paint. At the time of its completion, it was the largest mural in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The Pyramid, on the campus of California State University, Long Beach, is one of only six pyramid-shaped buildings in the entire country. The 192-foot arena is used for sporting events, concerts, and other functions.

The Grand Prix of Long Beach draws about 200,000 auto racing enthusiasts and other visitors to the city each year.

Meanwhile, less than two miles away is one of California's treasures, a large single-story adobe house called Rancho Los Alamitos. The house, built around 1806, is among the original prototypes for the "ranch" style homes that are now found all over the United States.

History

Around the year 1550, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo visited the site of present-day Long Beach. After observing the smoke from brush fires set by local Native Americans, he named the area "Bahia de los Fumos," or "Bay of Smokes."

The area remained a Native American trading camp until the late eighteenth century, when Spanish soldier Manuel Nieto received a huge land grant from Spain. He and his family gradually settled the area beginning in 1784, dividing the Rancho Nieto into two large ranches, Los Alamitos and Los Cerritos.

The land changed hands several times over the course of the next century, until William Willmore, an English real estate developer, purchased Los Cerritos in 1880. Two years later, he founded Willmore City, but the township failed after another two years. Willmore left California, but some settlers remained, and in 1888, the city of Long Beach was incorporated, with a population of approximately 1,500.

After a short period of "disincorporation," during which the city was torn apart over issues of prohibition, county government, and taxation, the city was incorporated again in 1897. During the first decade of the twentieth century, Long Beach was distinguished as the fastest growing city in the country, thanks in part to the development of the city's port, which opened in 1911.

In 1933, an earthquake destroyed most of the downtown area. In the decade that followed, the city was rebuilt, the port was expanded, and the naval base was opened. In 1947, eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes' famous Spruce Goose, the world's largest airplane at the time, embarked upon its first flight over Long Beach Harbor. The massive sea plane flew for one mile, and never flew again.

Between 1982 and 1992, the Spruce Goose was displayed in a special geodesic dome, the world's largest, alongside the Queen Mary in Long Beach. In 1992, the plane was sold, disassembled, and shipped to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in Oregon. The dome that housed the Spruce Goose is now used as a movie studio by Warner Bros.

In 1949, the local branch of California State University was founded, presumably to accommodate the many soldiers who were returning home from the war and anxious to start their lives anew.

Long Beach undertook an extensive redevelopment program in 1976. At a cost of several billion dollars, the nearly quarter-century project aimed to revitalize the city's downtown, neighborhoods, and business districts. The project has seen the opening of the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, the Downtown Shoreline Marina, Shoreline Village, and other sites.

During the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, four events -- archery, fencing, volleyball, and yachting -- were held in Long Beach.

Trivia

• Famous actress Cameron Diaz graduated from high school in Long Beach.
• Long Beach has the world's largest population of Cambodians outside of Cambodia itself.
• The Queen Mary ocean liner, built in 1936 and now permanently docked in Long Beach, is larger than the Titanic.

"Climate Change." Port of Long Beach, polb.com/environment/climate-change/#climate-change-overview. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

"Long Beach City, California." US Census Bureau, 2022, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/longbeachcitycalifornia/PST045223. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

"Long Beach History." Long Beach Community Development, www.longbeach.gov/lbcd/planning/preservation/history/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

Worrell, Carolina. "2024: A 'Pivotal Year' for POLB's Pier B Rail Facility." Railway Age, 30 Nov. 2023, https://www.railwayage.com/news/2024-a-pivotal-year-for-polbs-pier-b-rail-facility/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.