Port of Los Angeles

The Port of Los Angeles, on San Pedro Bay in Southern California, is the busiest container port in the United States and, together with the adjacent Port of Long Beach, forms the largest port complex in the country by cargo volume. It serves as the principal entry point for goods shipped from East Asia to the United States, its container traffic tied closely to the volume of trans-Pacific trade, and it connects to an extensive network of rail lines carrying containers onward to inland distribution centers across the country. The port grew from a modest harbor developed in the early twentieth century into a vast complex of terminals as trans-Pacific trade expanded through the later twentieth century.