Terminal Island - Geography and Demographics

Geography and Demographics

The west half of the island is part of the San Pedro area of the city of Los Angeles, while the rest is part of the city of Long Beach. The island has a land area of 11.56 km2 (4.46 sq mi), 2,854 acres (11.55 km2), and had a population of 1,467 at the 2000 census.

The land area of Terminal Island has been supplemented considerably from its original size. For instance, in the late 1920s, Deadman's Island in the main channel of the Port of Los Angeles was dynamited and dredged away and the resulting rubble used to add 62 acres (0.097 sq mi) to the Southern tip of the island.

The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach are the major landowners on the island, who then lease much of their land for container terminals and bulk terminals. The island also hosts canneries, shipyards, Coast Guard facilities, and a Federal Correctional Institution.

The Long Beach Naval Shipyard, decommissioned in 1997, occupied roughly half of the island. Sea Launch maintains docking facilities on the mole that was part of the naval station.

In 1909 the newly reincorporated Southern California Edison Company decided to build a new steam station to provide reserve capacity and emergency power for the entire Edison system - and to enable Edison to shut down some of the small obsolete steam plants in the system. The site chosen for the new plant was on a barren mud flat known as Rattlesnake Island - today's Terminal Island in Long Beach Harbor. Construction of Plant No.1 began in 1910.