Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-21

rivers in ages past wandered over the
territory now covered by the city of Los
Angeles, as we'll as over the land be-
tween Los Angeles and the sea, dis
charging their. waters into the ocean
now in one place and now in another.
When the white man first came to this
locality the Los Angeles river, aug
mented by the San Gabriel was occu-
pying it's present bed and discharging
through the present mouth at Long
Beach, some fuor miles northeast of the
outer end of the breakwater. Between
that mouth and San Pedro there is an
island of sand formed by the wind and
waves, formerly called Rattlesnake is
land but now known as Terminal is
land. Between this island and the main
land (half to one and half miles dis
tanD is Wilmington lagoon. This Ia
goon is shallow in most places, with
deeper channels running in all direc-
tions, one of which forming in part
Terminal island connects with the
mouth of the Los Angeles river
The Los Angeles river maintained its
entrance to the sea until about 1892,
when 1t was closed by the Terminal
Railroad company to prevent washing
out of its trestle. This mouth, how
ever, is now being opened and draw
bridge constructed over it, thereby re-
storing the old eastern entrance to San
Pedro harbor.
Makes Dredging Easy
Wilmington lagoon proper. contain
ing in the neighborhood of 1400 acres,
and the hundreds of acres of swampy
land between the lagoon and Long
Beach contain no rocks and almost no
hard material, making dredging easy
and cheap 1t Is out of this lagoon and
the adjacent swampy land that the
commercial harbor itself is being made.
According to present plans inside of
Deadmah's island there is room in the
lagoon alone for nearly fifteen miles of
wharves without the construction of
slips. By constructing slips this wharf
age room can be increased three or four
times All this is in addition to the ex-
,tensive slips and wharves that can be
constructed outside the inner harbor,
adjacent to the breakwater and along
the breakwater itself, nor does 1t in
clude the extensive Long Beach harbor
now being dredged by private capital.
At present there is available two
miles of wharves with twenty-five feet
of water at low tide, and nearly 1900
feet of wharves with thirty feet at low
! tide. The wharfage with thirty feet
will be increased by about 1000 feet in
the near future: in fact, all the wharf
age room with thirty feet available at
present or that will be available In the
next six months, is in the Southern
Pacific slip just inside the entrance to
the inner harbor. Upon the completion
of this slip the Southern Pacific COM
pany will have more wharfage room
with thirty feet of water than any other
port in California except San Francis
co; in fact, the slip is small harbor
itself 1t is over 1900 feet long and ZoO
feet wide, large enough to berth at one
time eight battleships, or one-half OF
the magnificent fleet we are lroud to
| uh Jndaad thnrp is slim
| equal to it on the Pacific coast of the
! United States and few, If any, on the
Atlantic coast.
Land Above Tldewater
| AS to the third requirement for
great harbor, viz. land just a trifle
above tidewater for factories, ware
houses, etc, the situation could hardly
be bettered. Everywhere stretching
away toward the interior from the har-
bor except near the entrance on the
San Pedro side, the land is very fiat for
several miles, and just a few feet above
! high tide. This will enable railroads to
build in every direction cheaply and
with no sensible grade, and for miles
there can be railroad yards and manu-
featuring plants of every description,
all of which can be reached by channels
dug through the sort material OF VIII
mington lagoon.
And, as to the fourth condition, viz.
that a harbor must be surrounded by
rich and prosperous country, San Pedro
stands pre-eminent in the Pacific south
west There is today within radius
of forty miles of the harbor a rapidly
growing population of half million.
And vet it's agricultural development is
really Just beginning, because until
within the past few years the whole
country was held in very large ranches
and put to no use except for grazing
and the production of small grain.
Is Accessible
Finally, as to accessiblity-the last
condition for a great harbor-San Pedro
Is located opposite the best passes
across the mountains to the east and
in a, central position regarding trade
up and down the coast and into the in
terror of California Itself. 1t is the
nearest point to the great mineral belt
comprising the states of Utah, Nevada,
New Mexico and Arizona. 1t is also
the nearest important commercial CEN
ter to the great circle route. e., the
shortest route between the Panama ca
nal and the Orient 1t is nearer Salt
Lake city and all points east and south
of that city than is San Francisco 1T
SELF and as for the cotton belt along
the gulf states from Texas to South
Carolina, it is generally nearer by SOo
to 400 miles.
This nearness to the cotton belt is an
important consideration in the future
commercial development of San Pedro
Today Japan is one of our very best
customers for raw cotton, and nearly
all of it goes through Seattle, some hum
dreds of miles farther from it's source
(Coutinued ou Page Eighty