Port of Los Angeles

The Port of Los Angeles (English Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Harbor or World Port LA) is located on the San Pedro Bay, about 30 kilometers south of downtown Los Angeles. The port complex occupies 30 km ². Adjacent is the separate Port of Long Beach. Other neighboring municipalities are Lomita, Carson and Rancho Palos Verdes. The Port of Los Angeles by creating a harbor Commission ( Board of Harbor Commissioners ) was founded on December 9, 1907 before the New York harbor the largest container port in North America. In total, over 16,000 people work in the port area.

History

The south-facing San Pedro Bay was originally a flat Watts, too soft to build a quay can. Incoming ships had two options: Far to anchor off the coast and to have their goods and passengers transported by small boats to the beach, or getting stranded. This unpleasant situation is described in Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr., who as a sailor, the San Pedro Bay visited in 1834. 1871, the situation was greatly improved when Phineas Banning was digging the channel to Wilmington to a depth of 10 feet. The port wrapped in consequence annually 50,000 tons of shipping freight. Banning had a haulage business, which he joined San Pedro with Salt Lake City and Yuma; In 1868 he built the first railroad in the area, with which he connected the San Pedro Bay with Los Angeles.

After Banning's death in 1885 drove his sons in their own interest to promote the port further, where earlier this year 500,000 tons of cargo were handled. The Southern Pacific Railroad and Collis P. Huntington, however, wanted to create the Port of Los Angeles in Santa Monica and built there in 1893 the Long Wharf. But Harrison Gray Otis, editor of the Los Angeles Times, and Senator Stephen M. White, urged the Federal Government to support the San Pedro project. The disputes were settled in 1897, when the San Pedro project was approved by a led by Rear Admiral John C. Walker Commission. With the support of the U.S. government began in 1899 the construction of a jetty, 1906, the area and a narrow corridor to the city center was connected to Los Angeles. The creation of a harbor commission to manage the port area by the Los Angeles City Council in December 1907 is considered the founding date of the port.

Harbor district

The port district is a separate district of the city of Los Angeles. Controlled the port of a five-member Harbor Commission Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners, whose members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council.

Prison

In the harbor there is a Prison Camp: The Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Iceland.

Envelope

In tax year 2008, the container volume was 8.1 million TEUs (20 -foot containers ), 2003 figure had been 6.7 million TEUs. After container volume of the Port of Los Angeles is the largest port in the United States and the eighth largest in the world is - if you include the adjacent Port of Long Beach at all is the fifth largest. The main trading partners in 2004 were:

The main types of imported goods were in descending order: furniture, clothing, toys and sporting equipment, vehicles and vehicle parts and electronic products.

Since 2002 the port has at any time a large backlog of ships to be unloaded. Many analysts believe that the traffic of the port has exceeded both its technical capacity and the capacity of the local highways and rail systems. The chronic congestion at the port begins effects on the American economy to have and interferes with the just-in -time production of many companies.

The harbor is operated railway side by the Pacific Harbor Line ( PHL). From there, the intermodal rail cars pass through the Alameda Corridor in Los Angeles.

Passenger Ship Travel

The Port of Los Angeles is the largest center for passenger cruises on the West Coast of the United States; more than 1 million passengers annually transported from here. Renovated World Cruise Center is known as the safest passenger shipping complex in the United States.

Environment

The high traffic volume demand a price: air pollution. Container ships burn in the port gas oil of low quality. Diesel-powered trailers and locomotives run at idle if they wait for the loading and unloading. An examination of the local agency for air quality regulation showed that the air pollution of the harbor is responsible for 2,000 cases of cancer per million, with 25 per million are the desired upper limit. The generated daily by the ocean going vessels of the port 47 tons of nitrogen oxides rich almost approached the ejected in the 350 largest factories and refineries in the region amount. It is expected that the former number is expected to increase by 2022 even by 70%.

To balance growth and development with environmental concerns is a challenge that needs to be re- taken daily in attack in the port of Los Angeles. This is achieved through a variety of strategies that include the use of environmentally friendly vehicles in and around the port, more efficient cargo handling, improved infrastructure and biological, industrial and internal environmental programs.

The Port Commission conducted in October 2002, a 2.8 million U.S. $ expensive program to improve air quality in the port of Los Angeles, Port of Los Angeles Clean Air Program ( POLACAP ), one that on the reduction of air polluting discharges of vehicles and cargo handling equipment aims. In order to accelerate the execution of emissions reduction through the use of new and more environmentally friendly systems, provides the port to 2008 in addition 52 million U.S. $ ready.