Long Beach–San Pedro Line

Long Beach–San Pedro
Overview
Owner	Pacific Electric
Line number	9
Locale	Los Angeles County, California
Termini	Long Beach San Pedro
Service
Type	Interurban
System	Pacific Electric
Operator(s)	Pacific Electric
History
Opened	June 25, 1910 (1910-06-25)
Closed	January 2, 1949 (1949-01-02)
Technical
Line length	7.82 mi (12.59 km)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	Overhead line, 600 V DC

The Long Beach–San Pedro Line is a former Pacific Electric interurban railway service in Los Angeles County, California. Unlike most of the company's services, trains did not travel to Downtown Los Angeles and instead provided a service between Long Beach and San Pedro. It was designated as line 9.^[1]

History

Direct service between Long Beach and San Pedro commenced on June 25, 1910.^[2][3] In 1917 the line was rerouted in Long Beach via Third Street, Pine Avenue, Ocean Avenue, Morgan, a private right-of-way, and a reverse move to Wilmington. Further rerouting in 1921 had the line crossing the Los Angeles River on Seventh Street after the river's new cement channel was constructed.^[1] Service was again rerouted starting February 15, 1942, this time to avoid the bascule bridge which was closed due to World War II. Passenger operations ceased after January 2, 1949.^[1]

Route

San Pedro station, 1921

Long Beach station

After departing Long Beach via the Seventh Street Bridge (since demolished), the line turned north, running on the west bank of the Los Angeles River before turning westward just south of Anaheim Street. The tracks crossed Anaheim Street obliquely and continued west before crossing two Southern Pacific steam lines before joining the San Pedro via Dominguez Line.^[4]

A spur line ran up Daisy Avenue, usually only served by a single passenger round trip to maintain the franchise.^[2]

List of major stations

Station	Mile[5]	Major connections	Date opened	Date closed	City
Long Beach	0	Long Beach, Long Beach Local Lines			Long Beach
East Wilmington	4.00				Wilmington
Wilmington	5.20	San Pedro via Dominguez
San Pedro	7.82	San Pedro via Dominguez, San Pedro via Gardena, San Pedro Local Lines			San Pedro

References

1. Veysey, Laurence R. (June 1958). A History Of The Rail Passenger Service Operated By The Pacific Electric Railway Company Since 1911 And By Its Successors Since 1953 (PDF). LACMTA (Report). Los Angeles, California: Interurbans. pp. 33, 34. ASIN B0007F8D84. OCLC 6565577.
2. "San Pedro Line". Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
3. Crump, Spencer (1977). Ride the big red cars: How trolleys helped build southern California. Trans-Anglo Books. p. 100. ISBN 0-87046-047-1. OCLC 3414090.
4. Wilmington (Map). United States Geological Survey. 1925.
5. "Pacific Electric Time Tables" (PDF). wx4's Dome of Foam. Pacific Electric. September 1, 1934. p. 9. Retrieved September 1, 2021.

External links

• 1943 Timetable