Long Beach, CA is a port city on San Pedro Bay in southern Los Angeles County, the seventh-most populous city in 📝California and home to one of the busiest container ports in the 📝United States.
The Tongva people lived in the area long before European settlement, and the village site of Puvunga, which they regard as a place of emergence, served as a regional trading center. Long Beach grew as a seaside resort town in the late nineteenth century and incorporated as a city in 1897. On March 10, 1933, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake centered offshore killed 120 people and destroyed many unreinforced masonry buildings, including schools, which led California to adopt statewide seismic safety standards for school construction.
The 2020 census counted 466,742 residents, making Long Beach the second-largest city in Los Angeles County after 📝Los Angeles, CA, whose downtown lies about 20 miles to the north.
The Port of Long Beach is the second-busiest container port in the country and, together with the adjacent Port of Los Angeles, forms the largest port complex in North America. The city is also known for the retired ocean liner RMS Queen Mary, permanently docked as a hotel and attraction, the Aquarium of the Pacific, the annual Grand Prix of Long Beach street race, and California State University, Long Beach, one of the largest universities in the state. Long Beach is scheduled to host several venues for the 2028 Summer Olympics.