Municipal Warehouse No. 1 opened in 1917, and for nearly fifty years acted as a liminal space between Los Angeles and the rest of the world. In its early days, Los Angeles was not the obvious location for a port that would eventually move more cargo than any other in the Western Hemisphere – the shoreline has no natural harbor. But by 1881, when construction began on the Panama Canal, industrialists and local politicians were already trying to remedy that problem. Their efforts, combined with a population boom in Los Angeles later that decade, meant that the city was poised to take advantage of an unexpected but promising future. Once San Pedro was chosen as the site of an official port, mud and silt were dredged from some areas and redeposited into others, deepening the harbor and creating landfill for docks and shipyards. In 1914, the same year that the Panama Canal opened, the first wharf was nearly ready, but its planned operations were derailed by the outbreak of World War I. Still, officials spent the war years believing in the return of free movement, preparing for it by building a centerpiece for their harbor complex, an intermediary point for all manner of goods between their journeys from far-flung lands and their destinations in American homes and businesses.
Forgotten Places: Warehouse No. 1
Forgotten Places: Warehouse No. 1
Forgotten Places: Warehouse No. 1
Municipal Warehouse No. 1 opened in 1917, and for nearly fifty years acted as a liminal space between Los Angeles and the rest of the world. In its early days, Los Angeles was not the obvious location for a port that would eventually move more cargo than any other in the Western Hemisphere – the shoreline has no natural harbor. But by 1881, when construction began on the Panama Canal, industrialists and local politicians were already trying to remedy that problem. Their efforts, combined with a population boom in Los Angeles later that decade, meant that the city was poised to take advantage of an unexpected but promising future. Once San Pedro was chosen as the site of an official port, mud and silt were dredged from some areas and redeposited into others, deepening the harbor and creating landfill for docks and shipyards. In 1914, the same year that the Panama Canal opened, the first wharf was nearly ready, but its planned operations were derailed by the outbreak of World War I. Still, officials spent the war years believing in the return of free movement, preparing for it by building a centerpiece for their harbor complex, an intermediary point for all manner of goods between their journeys from far-flung lands and their destinations in American homes and businesses.