History

Interstate 710, or the Long Beach Freeway, was originally called the Los Angeles River Freeway due to its proximity to that natural waterway. It was one of the earliest freeways in the Los Angeles area and its origins can be traced back to the "Great Free-Harbor Fight" of the 1890s, where Los Angeles City officials drew up a sixteen-mile "shoestring district" that would later become the Port of San Pedro, and eventually the Port of Los Angeles. Indeed, the shadow of i-710 can be discerned even further in the paths eked out by indigenous groups and Spanish settlers.

Footpaths and raodways of indigenous groups and Spanish settlers, pre-1860.

San Pedro and Los Angeles railroads, among others, 1925

The Los Angeles River Freeway, among others, 1979

The City of Los Angeles injected millions of dollars into developing the port infrastructure but neglected any plans for highway system to connect the ports to the city. The City of Long Beach stepped in to plan, construct, and finance such a highway, what would become the Los Angeles River Freeway and finally the Long Beach Freeway, in spite of a 1939 California Freeway Law that endowed the state with "broad powers of land acquisition for the construction freeways."

The City of Los Angeles was meanwhile making arrangements for the construction of a massive central manufacturing district (CMD) that would house major automotive companies such as Studebaker, Chrysler, and General Motors. A 1908 zoning law that established industrial districts along the Los Angeles River and set aside 3,750 industrial acres in the City of Commerce initiated the CMD.

Central Manufacturing District, 1940

Central Manufacturing District, aerial; located in the cities of Commerce, Bell, and Vernon.

The I-710 was meant to facilitate the movement of commodities manufactured at the CMD for export at the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports. Today however it functions more as an import artery as the United States falls into a greater trade deficit with its major suppliers like China. Manufacturing jobs have conversely become the United States' primary export.

The commercial relationship between the U.S. and China in 1985 and in 2014. Note the dramatic change in import figures. Direct transportation routes like the i-710 have played a major role in facilitating this relationship.

The Long Beach Freeway was legislated into the California State Highway System in 1947. The city had spent $1,000,000 on the freeway by 1949 and the city's Chamber of Commerce made recurring appeals to the California State Highway Commission for continued support. The California Division of Highways, today Caltrans, commented on the rarity of independent agency in charge of planning its own freeway:

"The southerly extension of the Los Angeles River Freeway requires special mention because the construction work now in progress by the City of Long Beach is the only instance since World War II of another governmental agency carrying out the construction and financing of a complete unit on the Los Angeles Metropolitan Freeway System."

A Division of Highways map, 1953. The Long Beach Freeway was one of Los Angeles earliest freeways

A partly constructed section of the I-710 passes through the Central Manufacturing District of Los Angeles

This independence gave rise to a conflict of interests. On the one hand, being left to its own devices was something desirous for the City of the Long Beach since its main motivation for the i-710 was to merge port traffic with local industry: "The Long Beach Freeway will connect the U.S. Naval installations at Long Beach and Terminal Island with the industrial area in Los Angeles and vicinity." On the other, the Division of Highways set port accessibility as the freeway's objective: "This artery...is to serve the harbor, [and is] an attempt to devise an adequate means of distributing ... traffic into our harbor and business districts,"

For state planners, the freeway would also be "handy for truck movements taking ship cargo to further destinations. From this freeway the trucks have access to the state's great highway network." According to the Division of Highways, Long Beach Harbor authorities' contributions to the project reached $12,000,000 by 1953.

Essentially, commuter vehicular traffic on the Long Beach Freeway became secondary to the interests of harbor businesses and local industry. Whatever repercussions the freeway would have for communities near the freeway or in the freeway's path were set aside.

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The I-710, 1953

The I-710 at the Santa Ana Freeway, 1956