page_title: Long Beach, California
section_title: Sites of interest
hierarchical_section_title: Long Beach, California / Culture / Sites of interest
caption_attribution_description: RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California
context_page_description: Long Beach is a city in the U.S. state of California located within the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It is the 43rd most populous city in the United States with a population of 462,257 in 2010. A charter city, Long Beach is the 7th most populous city in California.
  Incorporated in 1897, Long Beach lies in Southern California in southern Los Angeles County. Long Beach is approximately 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, and is part of the Gateway Cities region. The Port of Long Beach is the second busiest container port in the United States and is among the world's largest shipping ports. The city is over an oilfield with minor wells both directly beneath the city as well as offshore.
  The city is known for its waterfront attractions, including the permanently docked RMS Queen Mary and the Aquarium of the Pacific. Long Beach also hosts the Grand Prix of Long Beach, currently an IndyCar race and the Long Beach Pride Festival and Parade. The California State University, Long Beach, one of the largest universities in California by enrollment, is located in the city.
context_section_description: The RMS Queen Mary is a 1936 Art Deco ocean liner permanently docked at Long Beach. Roughly 200 ft (61 m) longer than the RMS Titanic, the former Cunard Liner is famous for being the fastest in the world from 1936 to 1952, for its distinctive art deco design and for its use during World War II as a troop transport. It was purchased by the City of Long Beach in 1967 for conversion to a hotel and maritime museum.
  The nonprofit Aquarium of the Pacific is on a 5-acre (20,000 m²) site on Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, across the water from the Long Beach Convention Center, Shoreline Village, and the Queen Mary Hotel and Attraction.
  The Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine received a Gold Medal award from the National Recreation and Park Association in 2002, 2003, and 2004, recognizing the Department's "outstanding management practices and programs." The Department manages 92 parks covering over 3,100 acres (13 km²) throughout the city, including the 815 acres (3.30 km²) El Dorado Regional Park, which features fishing lakes, an archery range, youth campground, bike trails, and picnic areas. The Department also operates four public swimming pools, and four launch ramps for boaters to access the Pacific Ocean.
  The 102.5-acre (0.4 km²) El Dorado Nature Center is part of the larger El Dorado Regional Park. The center features lakes, a stream, and trails, with meadows and forested areas.
  The Municipal Fly Casting Pool at Recreation Park in East Long Beach is a 260-by-135-foot clear water, fishless pond built and operated since 1925 by the Long Beach Casting Club as only one of two Southern California city operated casting ponds (the other being in Pasadena). Described recently as a serene pond "surrounded by a seemingly endless stretch of green grass against a backdrop of mountains and palm trees," several movie stars from the 1940s were taught to fly cast at the pond, including Robert Taylor, Clark Gable, Jimmy Durante, and Barbara Stanwyck. In 1932, the fly fishing clubhouse adjacent to the fly fishing pond was used for the Summer Olympic Games and housed military personnel during World War II.
  The Long Beach Greenbelt is a section of the old Pacific Electric right-of-way, restored by community activists as native habitat. It supports approximately 40 species of California native plants as well as a plethora of urban wildlife. Its pleasant, relaxing atmosphere provides for community open space while educating citizens about what the land was like prior to industrialization and urbanization.
  Rancho Los Alamitos is a 7.5-acre (30,000 m²) historical site owned by the City of Long Beach and is near the Long Beach campus of the California State University system. The site includes five agricultural buildings, including a working blacksmith's shop, 4 acres (16,000 m²) of gardens, and an adobe ranch house dating from around 1800. The Rancho is within a gated community; visitors must pass through security gates to get to it.
  Rancho Los Cerritos is a 4.7-acre (19,000 m²) historical site owned by Long Beach in the Bixby Knolls area near the Virginia Country Club. The adobe buildings date from the 1880s. The site also includes a California history research library.
  Bembridge House, a Queen Anne Victorian house, is open for tours. Long Beach is also home to the nation's skinniest house.
  The Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden is on the campus of California State University, Long Beach.
  Long Beach offers singing gondolier trips through the canals of Naples. Along with gondola rides on Lake Merritt, on the Napa River, in Huntington Beach, in Newport Beach, in Redondo Beach, and at The Venetian (Las Vegas), Long Beach is only one of seven places in the Western United States where tourists may ride in a gondola.
  The front beach area of the city was once home to a now-defunct amusement park. Its first rollercoaster opened for business in June 1907. It was named the Figure 8 after the shape of the tracks, and was built on pilings that reached out over the water. In 1914 the Pike Amusement Zone undertook several upgrades and a new rol
caption: RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor
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