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Tag: Long Beach Peninsula

  • March 9th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1931, a letter from Seal Beach Mayor Frank Wilson was read to Los Angeles Board of Supervisors explaining the Seal Beach city council’s opposition to the Flood Control District’s plans to improve the San Gabriel River channel by straightening it and adding two jetties to catching drifting sands to build more of a beachfront.

    In the letter, Mayor Wilson said:

    “The residents of Seal Beach for many years have visualized a sixty-foot vehicular bridge across the Alamitos Bay channel and the City Council, as a whole, is now reluctant to commit any official act the would in any wise jeopardize the rights of the municipality.

    The Council feels that the plans for San Gabriel flood control should not be approved as requested by Engineer Eaton until some provision has been made for such a vehicular bridge.”

    In other words, if you want your flood control, give us a bridge.

    There were other concerns expressed in the letter — care for the cooling waters from the Los Angeles Gas and Electric Corporation’s steam plant, a permanent right of access to any beach formed by the east jetty, and the need for the two jetties to be constructed at equal lengths.

    But the most important idea was Seal Beach needed an Ocean Avenue bridge for automobiles replacing the rail bridge used exclusively for Pacific Electric red car trolleys.

    Negotiations continued until an agreement was reached to include an Ocean Avenue bridge in the project in July 1931, and Seal Beach approved the project. The Los Angeles Gas and Electric Corporation granted a right-of-way for the bridge in September, and the War Department approved the plans in October 1931.

    Construction began in early 1932, and the completed bridge was opened to traffic on October 20, 1932. Mrs. Phillip A. Stanton cut the string.

    And that, my friends, is how Seal Beach got itself a bridge in a short nineteen and a half months.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • January 14th In Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1924, the Santa Ana Register reported that the Bayside Land Company had applied to the War Department for permission to dredge in Alamitos Bay and to use the dredged material as landfill for a new tract of land to the north of the coast highway at the west side of Seal Beach.

    It’s often hard to picture the old geography of Seal Beach from written descriptions and fit it to the current layout of the city. Here’s a closer view of a section of the 1922 photograph from above:

    Okay, maybe that helps a little, but some labels might make today’s post easier to understand:

    The old coast highway followed along the south edge of Alamitos Bay just to the left of Central Way (not Central Avenue). It then connected to Naples at Iona Walk. (Later the coast highway would be rerouted to connect to Naples along the street now called East Naples Plaza, but until the Long Marina was built, East Naples Plaza was just the eastern most part of Second Street in Naples.)

    If you’ve ever wondered why Central Way follows such a crooked path between First Street and Fifth Street, it’s because Central Way followed what was once the marshy edge of Alamitos Bay in Seal Beach before it was filled with dredged materials.

    Today’s Pacific Coast Highway did not exist in 1922 when this photo was taken, but its approximate route is labeled. Also missing is the steam plant at First Street and Ocean Avenue. It was constructed in 1925.

    The Pacific Electric bridge to Naples connected to what is now Appian Way close to where the Long Beach Yacht Club in the Long Beach Marina stands.

    Just below First Street, you can see the Ocean Avenue bridge to the Long Beach Peninsula. In 1922, the bridge only connected rail traffic from the Pacific Electric line to Seal Beach that ran down Ocean Avenue to Main Street and then turned to meet the Pacific Electric Newport-Balboa line at Electric Avenue. Automobile traffic didn’t cross along Ocean Avenue to the Long Beach peninsula until a new Ocean Avenue bridge was built in the thirties.

    – Michael Dobkins

    Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?

    If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.

    Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.

    This Date in Seal Beach History also has an online store hosted at Cafepress where you can order shirts, tote bags, stationery, and other gift items imprinted with vintage Seal Beach images. Visit the online store by clicking here.