Long Beach Attractions

Los Angeles County

Location and origin

Bordering on Los Angeles to the south, Long Beach extends along San Pedro Bay. The town was founded in 1881 under the name of Willmore City by the Englishman W. E. Willmore as a summer resort for the inhabitants of Los Angeles. Its name was changed before the end of the nineteenth century to Long Beach, thus showing by its name that here there exists a beach averaging 490ft/150m in width and over 5.5mi/9km long.

With the construction of the harbor and the discovery of oil at the beginning of the 20th century, Long Beach became visibly urbanized, and today is the second largest town in Los Angeles County. Numerous important branches of industry have also become established here; particularly notable is the firm of aircraft manufacturers McDonnell-Douglas. A serious earthquake in 1933, which cost the lives of 120 people and caused damage amounting to 50 million dollars, slowed down development temporarily, but not for long.

In addition to a large congress hall and museums, Long Beach has the famous liner "Queen Mary" lying at anchor and converted into a hotel and museum, also the biggest aircraft in the world, "Spruce Goose", built by Howard Hughes.

Trips round the harbor lasting 1.5 hours leave daily from Pier J at 11.15 a.m., 1.15 p.m. and 4 p.m. in the summer months; departure times in the remaining months are irregular.

In Downtown Long Beach, at the bottom of Pine Street south of the Convention Center, a harbor village has been built along the coast in the style of the eighties of the previous century, with some 40 shops and restaurants.