Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-07-25
SOUTHWEST GATEWAY
IS SAN PEDRO HARBOR
CONSOLIDATION MEANS ERA
OF EXPANSION
Taxpayers Should See Personally Sit
uation and Possibilities at Seaport
and Gain Appreciation of
What Future Holds
By JOHN T. GAFFEY

Among the large corporate interests
now engaged in the development of
San Pedro harbor the Pacific Wharf
and Storage company occupies a promi-
nent place. This corporation has been
actively engaged for the last two years
in it's immense reclamation project, en-
bracing eighty acres lying between the
Salt Lake Railroad company's holdings
and Deadman's island.
! Work on the company's granite sea
| wall is being rushed and will be COM
pleted on or before October Is, 1909. This
work is under federal supervision and
is regarded by competent engineers as
one of the finest examples of work of
this character
Twenty-Five acres of land have al
ready been made and the balance of
the fill will come from the dredgings
taken from the slips and in front of
the property. About twenty acres will
be embraced in these slips, and plans
are now being worked out to handle
shipping in the most expeditions and
economical manner possible. Work on
the slips will begin as soon as the COM
pany's breakwater is completed.
The Pacific Wharf and Storage COM
pany before engaging in this work
made a most exhaustive study of con-
ditions relating to San Pedro harbor,
and is in position to unqualiffedly
make the statement that the growth
and prosperity of Los Angeles are de-
pendent on the development of San
Pedro harbor to a degree which the
people of Los Angeles are only now
family beginning to realize.
Consolidation of Los Angeles and San
Pedro means the beginning of an era
of expansion which will place Los An
geles among the commercial cities of
the world. 1t is today the largest re-
tail city in the United States, and it
behooves every citizen to so work and
plan to the end that this city shall at
tain its place as one of the great whole
sale centers of commerce and trade.
Such an opportunity is offered but
once; see to it that advantage is taken.
The people of Los Angeles today as q
whole are an inland people, to whom
water transportation is an unknown
subject. Compared with the sums ex-
pended by many European cities, the
expenditure OF $10,000,000 by the city of
Los Angeles for the development of its
harbor seems a small amount indeed.
Plans Must Be Adjusted
After consolidation. the deepening of
the channel to thirty-five feet is the
most important subject to which we
must give our attention. With this ac-
low the establishment Of transpacific
lines.
Harbor development work on the
scale necessary to handle the commerce.
which will be ours must necessarily be
given the most careful attention, and
plans must be prepared which will adj
init of expansion at the least possible
cost.
1t is the duty of every taxpayer to
herself
what is being done at San Pedro. 1t
is your money which will be expended
there, and you can well afford to give
I'D a few hours and see with your own
eyes the work which is now going on.
San Pedro is not a pleasure resort.
1t is a business town with the largest
nav roll today of any town in Cali
fornia south of the Tehachapt with the
exception of Los Angeles.
The federal governments expendi-
lures at San Pedro exceed $3,500,00 900.
The fortifications will cost approx
mately $2,5000 900.
The completion of the Panama canal,
which is promised by January l. 1915,
will bring Los Angeles within fifteen
DAYS steaming of the Atlantic sea-
board. San Pedro is today the gate
way of the great southwest, an empire
in itself Well may the citizens of
Southern California feel proud of the
commerce and trade which, large as it
is today, will seem insignificant indeed
compared with the possibilities of the
immediate future.
DO not hesitate to assume the respon-
sibilities of the development of your
harbor. The material gain, as well as
the consciousness of a work we'll done
and upon which depend in a large
measure the vital growth of the whole
southwest will be yours.