Long Beach and Queen Mary

On my first visit to the Los Angeles in 1993 (business trip), we used to drive along the coast on the weekends. One weekend we stopped by at Long Beach to visit Queen Mary.

Note This article is part of our USA Retrospective series, featuring images captured on an early generation Kodak DC220 digital camera with 1280x1024 resolution. The images have post processed to artificially increase sharpness. Please forgive us if they do not meet your expectations of photographic quality.

Long Beach seems to be an interesting mix of container shipping (second busiest container port in the United States), the 7th most populous city, an oilfield (below the city and offshore), has one of the highest air pollution levels in America, the host of an IndyCar Grand Prix, California State University, plus several waterfront attractions, including the Queen Mary. It also used to host the Spruce Goose, the largest flying boat ever built, but by the time we visited it had been relocated to Oregon but the dome like structure where it was located was still there.

The RMS Queen Mary was built in 1936 as an ocean liner with an Art Deco design and at one time was the fastest in the world. It was used to carry troops in World War II. It was purchased by the City of Long Beach in 1967 and now permanently docked and used as a floating hotel.