UPDATE 2:15pm | Check out the festivities during the Port of Long Beach’s 100th birthday party on Saturday, June 25, with this 11-minute video clip courtesy of The Angel Show with German Angel.
11:01am | An estimated 5,000 area residents, elected officials and maritime enthusiasts gathered at a Port of Long Beach wharf on Saturday to partake in festivities celebrating the port’s 100th anniversary.
Featuring various exhibits of photographs and historical truck and rail displays, a waterfront carnival, screenings of the port’s centennial documentary, a port-history panel discussion, and musical entertainment provided by the Long Beach Municipal Band, there was a little bit of something for everyone to enjoy.
Attendees who chose to share their memories of the port were able to see them brought to life by artists set up along a particular area appropriately dubbed “Memory Lane.”
“In celebrating our centennial, it’s been a real pleasure to look back and see everything it took to make the port successful over the decades,” said Nick Sramek, president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, during the event “I’m truly in awe of the past business leaders, elected officials and maritime professionals who guided us to where we are today. And I’m just as impressed with the people here today who will take us into our next century.”
The port’s first shipment was a load of lumber that arrived on June 2, 1911, on the SS Iaqua. Just 22 days later, what would be come one of the busiest seaports in the world was dedicated with a dockside performance by the Long Beach Municipal Band.
Today the port provides the region with 300,000 jobs, and about $140 billion worth of cargo passes through the port each year, port officials said.
The port’s executive director, Richard D. Steinke, who is set to retire in the coming months, said it is “amazing” to think of all the people who have worked at and around the port over the past century.
“While many other waterfront industries have come and gone, international trade has remained strong,” he said during the event. “I’d like to take a moment to salute those who have been a part of the port’s history and have contributed to its success today.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this post included a typo relative to the overall worth of the cargo that passes through the port each year, incorrectly stating it as being $140 million.