The San Pedro Shred: Festival of Skate event will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the corner of Gaffey and 36th streets. Highlights include bands, food trucks, vendor tents, freeride and downhill 101, slide jam and pro downhill demo. The online Wheelbase magazine is one of the main sponsors, and you can register on thier site at Wheelbasemag.com. San Pedro Shred:Read more about the San Pedro skateboarding festival

The Golden State Pops Orchestra and the GSPO Chorale present a Holiday POPS Spectacular at 8 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro. Maestro Steven Allen Fox will lead the orchestra and 40-voice choir in a performance of great holiday film music. Included will be favorites from films such as "Miracle on 34th Street," "Polar Express," "Home Alone," "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Elf," plus a selection of Christmas carols and other holiday favorites. Guests are invited to bring their score to Handel's Messiah and join in GSPO's annual Hallelujah Chorus sing-along. Tickets are $21 to $60. For information, visit www.gspo.com or call 310-433-8774.

Boats strung with holiday lights will sail around the Port of Los Angeles on Saturday, kicking off the season of floating parades.

Celebrating its golden anniversary, more than 50 vessels of all shapes and sizes will participate in the 50th Annual Los Angeles Harbor Holiday Afloat Paradeon Saturday, December 1st, starting at 6 p.m. in the Port of Los Angeles Main Channel. 15th District Councilman Joe Buscaino will preside as Grand Marshal for this year’s sparkling spectacular display of boats that will celebrate the parade’s golden anniversary and showcase all the great features of the Los Angeles Waterfront. 

With the theme of “50 Golden Years of Holiday Lights,” officials and community leaders will take part in the parade as judges or passengers on approximately 60 parade boats. Vessels of all shapes and sizes will participate, including powerboats, sailboats, tall ships and harbor working craft.

The parade, which is sponsored by the Port of Los Angeles, starts in the East Basin near Banning’s Landing Community Center in Wilmington and takes approximately 90 minutes to cover the entire parade route up the Port’s Main Channel. Spectators may view the procession from several points along the Port’s Main Channel, including the Banning’s Landing Community Center, 100 E. Water Street, Wilmington; the parking lot in front of the USS IOWA, 250 S. Harbor Blvd., San Pedro; the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, 600 Sampson Way, San Pedro; Ports O’ Call Village, 1100 Nagoya Way, San Pedro; the Cruise Ship Promenade at Harbor Blvd. and Swinford Street in San Pedro; 22nd Street Landing, 141 W. 22nd Street, San Pedro; the SS Lane Victory, Berth 46 at the end of Miner Street, San Pedro; and Cabrillo Marina, 200 Whaler’s Walk, San Pedro.

Viewers are invited to enjoy festive pre-parade events beginning at 4 p.m. at Banning’s Landing Community Center and a post-parade Fanfare Fountain holiday program at 8 p.m. at the entrance to the World Cruise Center in San Pedro.

The USS Iowa battleship organization and the City of Los Angeles team up for a veterans celebration with live music, food, children's play zone, and a resource fair from 1 to 4 p.m. today The event is free, but separate from tour admission. A book-signing will be held in the USS Iowa parking lot featuring co-authors who share their wartime experiences in the book "In the Shadow of Greatness." Presentations regarding the book will also be held at 11 a.m. and 2 and 3 p.m. aboard ship.

Special guests tentatively scheduled to appear include Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, councilman Joe Buscaino and congresswoman Janice Hahn, Berth 87, 240 S. Harbor Blvd., San Pedro/Port of Los Angeles. USS Iowa website | All Things USS Iowa

                   The Battle to Build San Pedro Harbor

Two new railroads competed to build the dominant port for the Los Angeles area. The Sante Fe railroad constructed a wharf in Redondo Beach, which shipped a considerable amount of lumber from there. On April 13, 1892, the Dominguez heirs sold Rattlesnake Island in San Pedro to a competing railroad, the Los Angeles and Terminal Island Railroad Company.

In 1891, a survey had been commissioned as to a recommendation for the location for continued funding and construction of a deep water port for Southern California. This survey had recommended San Pedro as the desired location for the port. Collis P. Huntington, who now headed up the Southern Pacific Railroad, had become annoyed by the competition of the Los Angeles and Terminal Island Railroad, as well as the Sante Fe Railroad in Redondo Beach, so began a vigorous lobbying campaign to designate Santa Monica Bay for harbor development, since the Southern Pacific Railroad completely controlled this option. By 1893, Southern Pacific's railroad extension and wharf in Santa Monica were in full operation.

In 1896, an appropriations bill was approved by a congressional committee to fund the construction of a breakwater in Santa Monica, but an amendment was passed to the bill calling for a new commission to be appointed to review the best location for a deep water port. The Los Angeles Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis and U.S. Senator Stephen White pushed for federal support of the Port of Los Angeles at San Pedro Bay. The matter was settled when San Pedro was endorsed in 1897 by a commission headed by Rear Admiral John C. Walker . Finally in 1898, San Pedro was selected for the port improvements appropriation, and construction began on the new Federal breakwater project in San Pedro. This intense congressional battle was dubbed the "battle for a free port", because it was feared that with the Southern Pacific's monopoly of the Santa Monica port, that there would be no competition at the new port.

Construction of the breakwater began in 1899, with the first section completed in 1912. In 1906 the City of Los Angeles purchased a long narrow strip of land, a half-mile wide from Slauson Avenue, connecting the city to the cities of San Pedro and Wilmington (now known as the "Harbor Gateway" community). and in 1909, the city annexed San Pedro and the adjacent town of Wilmington. The odd shape is still seen in the map of the city.

Port of Los Angeles 1899

In 1888, the War Department took control of a tract of land next to the bay, and added to it in 1897 and 1910. This became Fort MacArthur in 1914, and was a coastal defense site for many years, which also included a Nike missile site in the White Point area. In 1978, the Secretary of the Interior transferred ownership of the White Point U.S. naval reservation to the City of Los Angeles to be used for recreational purposes. 

                                       San Pedro – Early Port History

By 1835, San Pedro had become the most important port on the Pacific Coast. Because of shallow water and mud flats, ships had to drop anchor about a mile off shore, and small boats would then transfer passengers and cargo ashore. These would often capsize, spilling both passengers and cargo into the muddy water. During this time, the Sepulveda family built a crude dock and landing at the base of cliffs near present day Fourteenth and Beacon Streets in San Pedro, which became known as Sepulveda Landing. Two major geographical features of San Pedro Harbor at this time were Deadman's Island (which was later dredged and became part of the current breakwater) and Rattlesnake Island (which later became Terminal Island). Rattlesnake Island was known as such because it was home to a large population of rattlesnakes who migrated down the Los Angeles River. The name was changed to Terminal Island by the railroad company because of the terminus of the rail line established there. 

 Excavation at Deadman’s Island

In 1851, 21 year old Phineas Banning arrived in San Pedro from Philadelphia. Banning, and his partner, George Alexander, soon began operating a stagecoach service from San Pedro. When August Timm’s bought the Sepulveda Landing, early in 1852, Banning was concerned (Sepulveda Landing then became known as "Timm’s Landing").

When word came from Washington that San Pedro would soon be declared an official port of entry with its own customhouse, Banning negotiated to buy a tract of land from the Sepulvedas, located near Timm's Landing, and promptly built his own wharf. In November 1854, Banning and a group of investors (J.G Downey, Don Benito Wilson, and William Sanford) purchased 2,400 acres adjacent to San Pedro, for port expansion. This land later became the city of Wilmington, after Banning's Delaware birthplace.

In the late 1860's Banning realized that for San Pedro Harbor to become a center of commerce, that three things needed to be accomplished: Building a railroad, constructing a break water, and dredging the harbor to accommodate large ships and to allow them to dock directly at the wharfs. In October 1869, construction was completed on the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad, Southern California's first railroad. On March 2, 1871, Congress voted an appropriation for construction of a rock jetty from the lower end of Rattlesnake Island to Dead Man's Island.

In 1872, the Southern Pacific Railroad agreed to run their railroad through Los Angeles and purchased the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad.  In 1881, they built an extension of the Los Angeles and San Pedro railroad across the Wilmington Lagoon on pilings to a point near Timm’s Point, thus enabling direct railroad access to the deep water wharf. Phineas Banning died in 1882, but his dream of making San Pedro a major port of entry to the United States would soon be realized.

The retired battleship USS Iowa opens to the public as a floating museum in San Pedro on Saturday.

It is the only battleship museum on the West Coast. On July 4, sailors who served on the Iowa gathered at the Port of Los Angeles to celebrate a new chapter for the ship.

The retired battleship USS Iowa opens to the public as a floating museum in San Pedro today.

It is the only battleship museum on the West Coast. On July 4, sailors who served on the Iowa gathered at the Port of Los Angeles to celebrate a new chapter for the ship.

The Iowa served in the Pacific Fleet during World War II. It was among the first U.S. ships to enter Tokyo Bay after Japan's surrender. It was decommissioned in 1990 and sat in mothballs until its arrival in San Pedro last month.

The museum will highlight the contributions of the 45,000-ton battleship and its crew. William Casady, 94, was among the first to serve on the ship.

The museum will be open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with last admission sold an hour before closing time. A general admission ticket is $18. Retired members of the military and seniors will get in for $15, and youths ages 6-17 will get in for $10.

Pacific Battleship Center

The USS Iowa berthed at its new permanent home in the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, Calif., in June. The decommissioned ship will now be a museum.

 

 

Jeremy Bonelle/Pacific Battleship Center

 

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

LA City Councilman, Joe Buscaino, (bottom row, left) waves to onlookers on shore as the USS Iowa is towed on June 09, 2012.

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

Naval officers disembark from the USS Iowa after the ship was towed to Pier 87 in San Pedro, CA. The retired battleship will open to the public as a floating museum in July 2012.

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

Naval officers "man the rails" as the USS Iowa approaches it's final berth in San Pedro, CA on June 09, 2012.

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

USS Iowa veterans, Robert Dedic, 1944-46, and Ellsworth Knutson,1946, visit aboard the retired battleship as it reaches it's final resting place in San Pedro, CA on June 09, 2012.

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

Dickie Simmons, center, checks out USS Iowa paraphernalia before disembarking at the ship's new resting place in San Pedro, CA.

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

Naval officers "man the rails" as the USS Iowa approaches it's final berth in San Pedro, CA on June 09, 2012.

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

Dickie Simmons shows his patriotism aboard the USS Iowa as the ship was being towed to it's final berth.

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

US Naval Sea Cadets listen for orders on "manning the rails" as the USS Iowa approaches it's final resting place at Berth 87 in San Pedro, CA.

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

High school members of the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps visit amongst themselves during the towing of the USS Iowa to it's final berth on June 09, 2012.

Roberto (Bear) Guerra

Guests tour the interior of the USS Iowa during the towing of the retired battleship to it's final berth in San Pedro, CA.