Port of Los Angeles: vintage postcards

San Pedro became the official site of the Port of Los Angeles, beating out Santa Monica, in 1897. The harbor is seen here on a vintage postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection. 

Every harbor needs a breakwater — the L.A. port’s is seen here on a vintage postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection. 

Terminal Island is now home to a federal prison, which has housed Charles Manson and other notorious criminals. It’s seen here, in very different circumstances, on a vintage postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection. 

A vintage postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection shows Dead Man’s Island in the port area. 

Masts and rigging dominate the sky at the port on this vintage postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection. 

Busy then — a view of Front Street at the harbor’s edge in San Pedro, on a postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection. (Busy now — ships stacked up waiting to unload their cargo.) 

The lumber that helped build Southern California often came through the Port of L.A. from the Pacific Northwest. Here, a lumber yard and mill in San Pedro, on a postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection. 

The U.S. military has found uses for the Port of Los Angeles over the years. Here, submarines are seen on a vintage postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection. 

Trains could ply the Long Wharf off Santa Monica, as seen on this vintage postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection. 

Collis P. Huntington’s Long Wharf extended 4,700 feet into Santa Monica Bay. 

The Long Wharf, seen on a vintage postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection, was sometimes called “Port Los Angeles.” 

The Long Wharf, seen in the distance on this postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection, was dismantled by 1933.