Port Ballona | |
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Coordinates: 33°58′46″N118°27′10″W / 33.97944°N 118.45278°W | |
Elevation | 16 ft (5 m) |
Time zone | UTC-8 (Pacific (PST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (PDT) |
Port Ballona is an archaic place name for an area near the center of Santa Monica Bay in coastal Los Angeles County, where Playa Del Rey and Del Rey Lagoon are located today. Port Ballona was a planned harbor and town site from circa 1859 to 1903. The name comes from the Rancho La Ballona Mexican land grant.
Port Ballona consisted of the current Del Rey Lagoon Park but conceptually also included the current Ballona Wetlands State Ecological Reserve alongside the estuarine river Ballona Creek, which flowed into and alongside the marsh within earthen levees built of soft-bottomed wetland soil. [1] While these plans never came to fruition, and the area remains a primarily residential neighborhood, the wetlands immediately to the north were eventually developed into Marina del Rey, North America's largest man-made small-craft harbor.
In 1839, the Mexican government granted the Machados and Talamantes families title to Rancho La Ballona. [2] [3] [4]
In 1857, Benjamin D. Wilson, the mayor of Los Angeles, through foreclosure received title to a quarter of Rancho La Ballona. [5] Later, in 1859, Wilson, for $5000, sold 3,480 acres (1,410 ha) of Rancho La Ballona to George A. Sanford and John D. Young. During the Civil War, General George Wright ordered troops to secure Port Ballona against any Confederacy invasion; by 1862, a large force of 6,000 Union troops were at and near Port Ballona. The troop camp was called Camp Latham after Milton Latham. [6]
The Great Flood of 1862 turned the Port and the land around it into a swamp for six months. [7] [8]
In 1863, Louis Mesmer sold his Los Angeles bakery and purchased extensive land holdings from the Machados, including Port Ballona. In 1887, Louis Mesmer and Moye Wicks made a small harbor at Port Ballona. Moye Wicks starts the Ballona Harbor and Improvement Company in 1887, with plans to make the port a major sea port. On August 21, 1887, the Town of Port Ballona was developed by Louis Mesmer and Moye Wicks. By 1889, Ballona Harbor and Improvement Company was out of funds to complete the maintain and expand the port, they could not keep the Port open. Louis Mesmer and Moye Wicks sold the port and land around the port to Moses Sherman. Sherman purchased 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land around the Ballona lagoon and the Port Ballona in 1902 under the name, Beach Land Company. [9]
Port Ballona rail depot was built at the port and serviced by the California Central Railway opening in September 1887; this line later became the Santa Fe Railway, that later became the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. The rail line ran from the port to Redondo junction. [10]
Sherman and Clark renamed the port and land around the port to Del Rey in 1903. Port Ballona, in 1903, was renamed Playa Del Rey by Sherman and Clark.
Port Ballona Street car depot, built by Sherman's Redondo and Hermosa Beach Railroad, was part of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad. The Sherman's tram line opened in December 1902, it departed Downtown Los Angeles at 4th & Broadway. [11] [12]
In the 1880s and 1890s, parts of Venice, Playa Vista, Culver City, and Mar Vista were also part of Port Ballona. [13]
Marina del Rey is an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination of the greater Los Angeles area. The port is North America's largest man-made small-craft harbor and is home to approximately 5,000 boats. The area is a popular tourism destination for both land and water activities such as paddle board and kayak rentals, dining cruises, and yacht charters. Land activities include bicycling on several bicycle paths, walking paths along the waterfront, and birdwatching (birding). Wildlife watching opportunities include California sea lions and harbor seals. Dolphins and whales occasionally visit the deeper waters of harbor. This Westside locale is approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Santa Monica, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Los Angeles International Airport, and 12.5 miles (20.1 km) west-southwest of Downtown Los Angeles.
Playa del Rey is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a population of 16,230 people.
Playa Vista is a neighborhood in the Westside area of Los Angeles, California, United States. The area was the headquarters of Hughes Aircraft Company from 1941 to 1985 and the site of the construction of the Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose" aircraft. The area began development in 2002 as a planned community with residential, commercial, and retail components. The community attracted businesses in technology, media and entertainment and is part of Silicon Beach.
Ballona Creek is an 8.5-mile (13.7 km) channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a "year-round river lined with sycamores and willows" with the Tongva village of Guashna located at the mouth of the creek. Ballona Creek and neighboring Ballona Wetlands remain a prime bird-watching spot for waterfowl, shorebirds, warblers, and birds of prey.
Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve is a protected area that once served as the natural estuary for neighboring Ballona Creek. The 577-acre (2.34 km2) site is located in Los Angeles County, California, just south of Marina del Rey. Ballona—the second-largest open space within the city limits of Los Angeles, behind Griffith Park—is owned by the state of California and managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The preserve is bisected generally east-west by the Ballona Creek channel and bordered by the 90 Marina freeway to the east.
The Marvin Braude Bike Trail is a 22-mile (35 km) paved bicycle path that runs mostly along the shoreline of Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles County, California. The coastal bike trail is widely acknowledged as Los Angeles’ “most popular bike path.”
The Ballona Creek Bike Path is a 6.7-mile (10.8 km) Class I bicycle path and pedestrian route in California. The bike path follows the north bank of Ballona Creek until it reaches Santa Monica Bay at the Pacific Ocean. The route is defined by, and recognized for, the dramatic contrast between the channelized waterway’s stark cement geometry and the abundant wildlife of the verdant Ballona Wetlands.
California's 36th congressional district is a U.S. congressional district in California. The 36th district is located primarily in the South Bay and Westside regions of Los Angeles. It takes in the cities of Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, the west side of Culver City, Hermosa Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills Estates, El Segundo, Lomita, Manhattan Beach, and the west side of Torrance, as well as the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Venice, Playa del Rey, Palms, Cheviot Hills, Westwood Village, West Los Angeles, Mar Vista, Westchester, Marina Peninsula, and west side Harbor City.
Ballona is a geographic place name in the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California.
Rancho La Ballona was a 13,920-acre (56.3 km2) Mexican land grant in the present-day Westside region of Los Angeles County, Southern California.
Southern California Railway was formed on November 7, 1889. it was formed by consolidation of California Southern Railroad Company, the California Central Railway Company, and the Redondo Beach Railway Company.
The California Central Railway was incorporated on April 23, 1887, with headquarters in San Bernardino, California. George O. Manchester was the President of the corporation.
The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad (1896−1911) (LAP) was an electric public transit and freight railway system in Los Angeles County, California. At its peak it had 230 miles (370 km) of track extending from Downtown Los Angeles to the Westside, Santa Monica, and the South Bay towns along Santa Monica Bay.
The Long Wharf in Santa Monica, also known as Port Los Angeles or the Mile Long Pier, was an extensive pier wharf constructed by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in Santa Monica Bay from 1892–94. When it opened in 1894, it was the longest wharf in the world, measuring approximately 4,700 feet (1,400 m). It served as a cargo and passenger port until 1913, and in 1919 removal of the wharf started. The wharf, the 1,000 foot (300 m) tip of the pier, was removed by 1920. The remaining 3,600 feet (1,100 m) of pier was used as a run down fishing pier until 1933, when the remainder of the pier was removed. One of the major imports to the wharf was lumber from Northern ports, to help in the construction boom in Southern California. Southern Pacific Railroad and the street cars of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad served the wharf. Los Angeles Pacific Railroad ran passenger trams to the wharf and from midnight to sunrise ran cargo cars.
The Venice–Inglewood Line is a former Pacific Electric interurban railway line in Los Angeles County, California. Service was very sparse, providing a suburban route between Venice and Inglewood.
The Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey was an interurban railway route of the Pacific Electric. It operated between the Hill Street Terminal and Cliffton, south of Redondo Beach, through the company's Western Division.
The Ballona Lagoon is a soft-bottomed channel and 16-acre (65,000 m2) tidal marsh in the Marina Peninsula neighborhood of Los Angeles that feeds the Venice Canals with water from the Pacific Ocean via a tide gate.
Del Rey Lagoon Park is a 14-acre (57,000 m2) municipal park in the Playa Del Rey neighborhood of Los Angeles, United States, with a lagoon that is part of the greater Ballona Creek watershed.
The Mesmer family of California was a wealthy family of early Los Angeles settlers who contributed to the development of the city between the rancho era and the explosive growth of the post-WWII era.
Guashna was a Tongva village located at Playa Vista, Los Angeles at the mouth of Ballona Creek. The site has also been referred to as Sa'angna, with various sources debating whether Sa'angna, meaning "place of tar," was a regional referent rather than a village name or whether it was a separate nearby village. The initial place name was said to be Sa'an; the village suffix "ngna" was added by Bernice Johnston to her 1962 map of Gabrieleño villages "despite her having found no mention of the term in baptismal records." Sa'angna is also not to be confused with Suangna. The Tongva referred to the Ballona Wetlands as Pwinukipar, meaning "full of water." Another alternate name may Waachnga.