Before its development as a small-craft harbor, the land occupied by Marina del Rey was a
salt marsh fed by fresh water from
Ballona Creek. The area was frequented by the
Tongva, who used plank boats, known as ''
te'aats'', to traverse the waters and to paddle out to the
Channel Islands. Fishing and shellfish harvesting were common. The village of
Guashna was a major regional trade center between villages on the islands and the mainland. With the increasing arrival of European settlers, Moye C. Wicks thought in the mid-19th century of turning the
estuary and the wetland of
Playa del Rey into a commercial port. He formed the Ballona Development Company in 1888 to develop the area, but three years later the company went bankrupt. The area became frequented by duck hunters, including their hunting club, as well as by birdwatchers of the Los Angeles
Audubon Society and the southern chapter of the Cooper Ornithological Club.
Burton W. Chace, a former councilman of the
City of Long Beach who later became a member of the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, referred to the area as
mud flats, but the area would today more properly be referred to as an estuary and
wetland.
Port Ballona was made by
Louis Mesmer and Moye Wicks and then sold to
Moses Sherman. Sherman purchased of land around the Ballona lagoon and Port Ballona in 1902 under the name the
Beach Land Company. Sherman and Clark renamed the land "
Del Rey". Port Ballona was then renamed
Playa Del Rey. The port was serviced by the
California Central Railway opened in September 1887. This line later became the
Santa Fe Railway, which later became the
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. The rail line ran from the port to
Redondo Junction. A
street car tram line was made to the Port by the
Redondo and Hermosa Beach Railroad company, which had incorporated on February 21, 1901. This company was part of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, owned by Sherman. The tram line opened December 1902 departed downtown at 4th and Broadway. In 1916, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revisited the idea of a commercial harbor, but declared it economically impractical. In 1936 the
U.S. Congress ordered a re-evaluation of that determination, and the Army Corps of Engineers returned with a more favorable determination; however, the Marina del Rey Harbor concept lost out to
San Pedro as a commercial harbor and development funding went to the
Port of Los Angeles instead. In 1949, the
US Army Corps of Engineers submitted an elaborate $23 million plan for a marina with mooring space for over 8,000 small-craft boats. In 1954,
President Eisenhower signed Public Law 83-780, authorizing the study of the creation of the Marina as a federal project. After seven years of legislative wrangling, Public Law 87-402 renamed the Playa Del Rey Inlet and Harbor as Marina del Rey, implicitly enshrining the authorization of the project into law. Groundbreaking began shortly afterward, during the early years of the
Kennedy administration. With construction almost complete, the marina was put in danger in 1962–1963 by a winter storm. The storm caused millions of dollars in damage to both the marina and the few small boats anchored there. A plan was put into effect to build a breakwater at the mouth of the marina, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appropriated $2.1 million to build it. On April 10, 1965, Marina del Rey was formally dedicated. The total cost of the marina was $36.25 million for land, construction, and initial operation. Los Angeles County then solicited bids for the harbor and port development and sold 60-year leaseholds to willing developers. Real estate developer
Abraham M. Lurie was the single largest leaseholder responsible for the building of three hotels, two apartment complexes, 1,000 boat slips, and several shopping centers, offices, restaurants; his holdings also included the last undeveloped piece of waterfront land in Marina del Rey. ==Geography==