Site of Port Los Angeles Long Wharf

Collis Huntington wanted the federal harbor money spent where his railroad already owned the waterfront. He and Senator John P. Jones ran double track out over Santa Monica Bay to a wharf finished in 1893, the longest in the world, and it pulled shipping off San Pedro. Stephen White argued in the Senate that a harbor belonging to one railroad is not a harbor, and a federal board chose San Pedro in 1897. The wharf carried freight until 1913, then came up in pieces. Nothing of it is left.

What the plaque says

In 1893 the Southern Pacific Railroad Company completed its 4,720-foot wharf which served as a deep water port for the Los Angeles area. After San Pedro became Los Angeles's official harbor in 1897, shipping activity at Port Los Angeles declined. Ultimately abandoned and dismantled, no trace remained of what had been the longest wooden pier in the world. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 881 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Pacific Palisades Historical Society, July 18, 1976.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Santa Monica Pier — 2.3 mi
  Where the Mother Road runs out of continent, and where the End of the Trail sign gives the drive somewhere to finish.
• Colorado Street Bridge — 22 mi
  Beaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 24 mi
  The fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.

More markers nearby

• Old Santa Monica Forestry Station — 0.8 mi
• Serra Springs — 4.1 mi
• Harold Lloyd Estate (Greenacres) — 7.0 mi
• Adamson House at Malibu Lagoon State Beach — 8.7 mi