Terminal Island is an island located in
Los Angeles County, CaliforniaLos Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...
between Los Angeles Harbor and Long Beach Harbor. Originally a
mudflatMudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides or rivers. They are found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons, and estuaries. Mudflats may be viewed geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, resulting from deposition of...
known to the Spanish as
Isla Raza de Buena Gente, and later called
Rattlesnake Island, it has officially been Terminal Island since 1918. The west half of the island is part of the San Pedro area of the city of
Los AngelesLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, while the rest is part of the city of
Long BeachLong Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. The island has a land area of 11.56 km
2 (4.46 sq mi), 2854 acres (11.5 km²), and had a population of 1,467 as of the
2000 censusThe Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
.
History
The island was home to hundreds of first and second-generation Japanese prior to
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in an area known as East San Pedro. After the attack on
Pearl HarborPearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, all of the adult males were incarcerated by the FBI and the rest of the inhabitants were forced to evacuate their homes within 48 hours. The subsequent enactment of
Executive Order 9066United States Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones...
sent all West Coast Japanese and Japanese-American citizens to internment camps. The entire neighborhood was razed.
Because of the relative geographical isolation of the island, the citizens developed their own culture and even their own dialect. After World War II, the Terminal Islanders, naturally, settled elsewhere. However, in 1971, they formed the "Terminal Islanders Club". Since its formation, the members have organized various events for the members. In 2002, the surviving second-generation citizens set up a memorial on Terminal Island to honor their parents.
NAS Terminal Island
In 1927 a civilian facility, Allen Field, was established on Terminal Island. The
Naval ReserveThe United States Navy Reserve, until 2005 known as the United States Naval Reserve, is the Reserve Component of the United States Navy...
established a training center at the field and later took complete control designated the field Naval Air Base San Pedro (also called "
ReevesJoseph Mason "Bull" Reeves was an admiral in the United States Navy, who was an early and important supporter of U.S. Naval Aviation...
Field"). In 1941 the Long Beach Naval Station became located adjacent to the airfield. In 1942 the Naval Reserve Training Facility was transferred and a year later NAB San Pedro's status was downgraded to that of a Naval Air Station (NAS Terminal Island). Reeves Field as a Naval Air Station was disestablished in 1947, although the adjacent Long Beach Naval Station would continued to utilize Reeves Field as an auxiliary airfield until the late 1990s. A large industrial facility now covers the site of the former Naval Air Station.
Ownership
The
Port of Los AngelesThe Port of Los Angeles, also called Los Angeles Harbor and WORLDPORT L.A, is a port complex that occupies of land and water along of waterfront. The port is located on San Pedro Bay in the San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles, approximately south of downtown...
and the
Port of Long BeachThe Port of Long Beach, also known as Long Beach’s Harbor Department, is the 2nd busiest container port in the USA. It adjoins the separate Port of Los Angeles. Acting as a major gateway for U.S.-Asian trade, the port occupies of land with of waterfront in the city of Long Beach, California...
are the major landowners on the island, who then lease much of their land for container terminals and bulk terminals. The island also hosts
canneriesCanning is a method of preserving food in which the food contents are processed and sealed in an airtight container. Canning provides a typical shelf life ranging from one to five years, although under specific circumstances a freeze-dried canned product, such as canned, dried lentils, can last as...
,
shipyardShipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
s,
Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
facilities, and a
Federal Correctional InstitutionFederal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island is a low-security prison for men located on Reservation Point on Terminal Island and in San Pedro, Los Angeles. The other Federal prison in the Los Angeles area is the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles...
.
The
Long Beach Naval Shipyardthumb|right|300px|Long Beach Naval Shipyard in 1993The Long Beach Naval Shipyard, which closed in 1997, was located at Terminal Island between the city of Long Beach and the San Pedro district of Los Angeles and approximately 23 miles south of the Los Angeles International Airport.The Long Beach...
, decommissioned in 1997, occupied roughly half of the island.
Sea LaunchSea Launch is a spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile sea platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit 3SL rockets...
maintains docking facilities on the
moleA mole is a massive structure, usually of stone, used as a pier, breakwater, or a causeway between places separated by water. The word comes from Middle French mole and ultimately Latin mōlēs meaning a large mass, especially of rock and has the same root as molecule.Historically, the term "mole"...
that was part of the naval station.
Bridges
Terminal Island is connected to the mainland via three bridges. To the west, the distinctively green
Vincent Thomas BridgeThe Vincent Thomas Bridge is a long suspension bridge, opened in 1963, crossing the Los Angeles Harbor in the U.S. state of California, linking San Pedro, Los Angeles, with Terminal Island. The bridge is signed as part of State Route 47. It is named for California Assemblyman Vincent Thomas of San...
connects Terminal Island with the Los Angeles neighborhood of
San PedroSan Pedro is a port district of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was annexed in 1909 and is a major seaport of the area...
. It is the fourth longest
suspension bridgeA suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
in California. The
Gerald Desmond BridgeThe Gerald Desmond Bridge is a through arch bridge that carries four lanes of Ocean Boulevard from Interstate 710 in Long Beach, California, west across the Cerritos Channel to Terminal Island...
connects Terminal Island to downtown
Long BeachLong Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
to the east. The (also green) Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge joins Terminal Island with the Los Angeles neighborhood of
WilmingtonWilmington is a district of Los Angeles, with industry as its primary economic activity. It lies adjacent to the Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, and Harbor City. Wilmington is the site of Banning House and Drum Barracks, or Camp Drum, the only major American Civil War landmark in California. The...
to the north. Adjacent to the Heim Bridge is the
Henry Ford BridgeThe Henry Ford Bridge carries the Pacific Harbor Line railroad across the Cerritos Channel to Terminal Island and the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. The original 1924 bridge was replaced in 1996....
that carries rail traffic.
In popular culture
In the original
Gone in 60 SecondsGone in 60 Seconds is a 1974 American action film written, directed, produced by, and starring H.B. 'Toby' Halicki. It centers on a group of car thieves and the 48 cars they must steal in a matter of days. The film is famous for having wrecked and destroyed 93 cars in a 34-minute car chase scene....
, the police chase goes across both the
Gerald Desmond BridgeThe Gerald Desmond Bridge is a through arch bridge that carries four lanes of Ocean Boulevard from Interstate 710 in Long Beach, California, west across the Cerritos Channel to Terminal Island...
and the
Vincent Thomas BridgeThe Vincent Thomas Bridge is a long suspension bridge, opened in 1963, crossing the Los Angeles Harbor in the U.S. state of California, linking San Pedro, Los Angeles, with Terminal Island. The bridge is signed as part of State Route 47. It is named for California Assemblyman Vincent Thomas of San...
. The remake,
Gone in 60 Seconds, states that Eleanor jumps on the "Vincent Thomas Bridge" when it actually jumps on the Gerald Desmond Bridge.
In the film
Death RaceDeath Race is a 2008 action film produced, written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and starring Jason Statham. Though referred to as a remake of the 1975 film Death Race 2000 in reviews and marketing materials, director Paul W.S. Anderson stated in an interview and the DVD commentary that he...
, the island is the home of the prison in which most of the film takes place.
Author
John FanteJohn Fante was an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Italian descent. He is perhaps best known for his work, Ask the Dust, a semi-autobiograpical novel about life in and around Los Angeles, California, which was the third in a series of four novels, published between 1938...
makes extensive mention of the island in the novels
Ask the DustAsk the Dust is the most popular novel of Italian-American author John Fante, first published in 1939 and set during the Great Depression-era in Los Angeles. It is one of a series of novels featuring the character Arturo Bandini as Fante's alter ego, a young Italian-American from Colorado...
and
Dreams from Bunker Hill.
In the
Neal StephensonNeal Town Stephenson is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction.Difficult to categorize, his novels have been variously referred to as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk...
science fiction novel
Snow CrashSnow Crash is Neal Stephenson's third novel, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's other novels it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics, and philosophy....
, Terminal Island is part of a "sacrifice zone", a "parcel of land whose clean-up cost exceeds their total future economic value".
In the
Leonardo DicaprioLeonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
movie
InceptionInception: The Subconscious Jams 1994-1995 is a compilation of unreleased tracks by the band Download.-Track listing:# "Primitive Tekno Jam" – 3:23# "Bee Sting Sickness" – 8:04# "Weed Acid Techno" – 8:19...
the Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge bridge was used for the scene when the main characters are forced to jump a van off a bridge to wake up from one of the levels of the dream.
External links
http://www.MyLAAFBGuide.com