San Pedro, CA news and local guide

European settlement began in 1769, though Spanish trade restrictions encouraged more smuggling than legitimate business. In 1784 the Spanish Crown deeded Rancho San Pedro, more than 75,000 acres, to the retired soldier Juan Jose Dominguez, a member of the Portola expedition, the first land grant in Alta California. Under Mexico the trade restrictions were lifted and the port flourished. After 1848 the harbor was greatly expanded under Phineas Banning and Governor John Gately Downey, and in 1868 Banning built the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad, Southern California's first, to carry goods to Los Angeles. San Pedro was a township of 359 people in the 1860 census. Los Angeles annexed a narrow strip, the Harbor Gateway, in 1906 to reach the harbor and consolidated with Wilmington and San Pedro in 1909. The War Department's land beside the bay became Fort MacArthur in 1914, and from August 9, 1919, when 200 Navy ships were transferred to the Pacific, San Pedro Bay served as home port of the Navy's battle fleet until 1940. In 1929 the Sunken City landslide sent several homes sliding off a cliff into the sea. Sources Wikipedia: San Pedro, Los Angeles