Former Southwest Marine Shipyard (Los Angeles, California)

USA / California / Lomita / Los Angeles, California
 shipyard, closed
The shipyard at Berth 240Z was constructed in 1917 by the Southwestern Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in support of World War I. Following the war, Southwestern Shipbuilding continued to construct and repair vessels, although on a much smaller scale.

In 1922, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Ltd. acquired the site and rearranged the shipyard into a repair plant. A 15,000-ton capacity dry dock was constructed to accommodate both small and large ships, along with a number of facilities, including a boilermaker shop, a carpenter shop, an electrical shop, a joiner department, a machine shop, a marine-machine shop, a pipe shop, a rigger shop, a plate shop, a pattern shop, and a blacksmith shop. Union Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad served the plant, and concrete boulevards enabled trucks and automobiles to reach the docks and piers.

In late 1940, in support of World War II, Bethlehem converted the site into a combined ship repair and shipbuilding plant. Facilities were added to the south end of the site, including new shops and warehouses, an outfitting berth, ways with colby cranes, and a mold loft. Some of the earlier improvements, particularly on the north end of the site, were demolished in this development phase.

After the war, shipbuilding activity decreased and facility remained active by concentrating on repairing ships. In early 1959, Bethlehem initiated a Cold War Improvement Program, which included the demolition of four shipbuilding ways constructed during the war, the replacement of wooden piers with high-water platforms to accommodate tower cranes, and the relocation of Dry Dock No. 2 to the northwest portion of the shipyard.

Facing major economic challenges in its steel-manufacturing business during the 1970s and 1980s, Bethlehem Steel Corporation divested itself of the San Pedro yard in 1981. Southwest Marine, Inc. a San Diego-based company, purchased the yard and operated it as a ship repair facility until 2005.



More here: www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/san-pedro-swm....
www.portofla.org/EIR/SWM/DEIR/deir_swm.asp
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   33°43'57"N   118°16'11"W

Comments

  • http://www.laporthistory.org/level3/berth_240.html http://www.destroyerhistory.org/destroyers/bethsp.html
  • For a complete list of ships built here, please see: http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/3public/inactive/charleston.htm
  • Proposed site for new SpaceX facility that would be used to "design, develop, and manufacture prototypes and first-generation models of specialized commercial transportation vessels."
  • Here's who's ready to sign the check to buy the lot and build for Spaceport 1999; WW Marine Composites, LLC,
  • Followed the comments and It should be moved as suggested to the historic layer as a portion of the space is about to become the construction site of the BFR. https://www.portoflosangeles.org/Board/2018/March%202018/03_15_18_Special_Agenda_Item_7_Transmittal_1.pdf
  • Point 1: The entire shipyard property is not going to become the SpaceX property, only part of it. Point 2: the SpaceX property isn't even built yet; why the rush to move this to the historical layer for a PROPOSED, UNBUILT project? Those are the kinds of tags we deleted around here, last I checked.
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This article was last modified 7 years ago