A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles and America

by James Tejani

A deeply researched narrative of the creation of the Port of Los Angeles, a central event in America’s territorial expansion and rise as a global economic power.


The Port of Los Angeles is all around us. Objects we use on a daily basis pass through furniture, apparel, electronics, automobiles, and much more. The busiest container port in the Western hemisphere, it claims one-third of all US ocean shipping. Yet despite its centrality to our world, the port and the story of its making have been neglected in histories of the United States. In A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth, historian James Tejani corrects that significant omission, charting the port’s rise out of the mud and salt marsh of San Pedro estuary—and showing how the story of the port is the story of modern, globalized America itself.


By the mid-nineteenth century, Americans had identified the West Coast as the republic’s destiny, a gateway to the riches of the Pacific. In a narrative spanning decades and stretching to Washington, DC, the Pacific Northwest, Civil War Richmond, Southwest deserts, and even overseas to Europe, Hawaii, and Asia, Tejani demonstrates how San Pedro came to be seen as all-important to the nation’s future. It was not virgin land, but dominated by powerful Mexican estates that would not be dislodged easily. Yet American scientists, including the great surveyor George Davidson, imperialist politicians such as Jefferson Davis and William Gwin, and hopeful land speculators, among them the future Union Army general Edward Ord, would wrest control of the estuary, and set the scene for the violence, inequality, and engineering marvels to come.


San Pedro was no place for a harbor, Tejani reveals. The port was carved in defiance of nature, using new engineering techniques and massive mechanical dredgers. Business titans such as Collis Huntington and Edward H. Harriman brought their money and corporate influence to the task. But they were outmatched by government reformers, laying the foundations for the port, for the modern city of Los Angeles, and for our globalized world. Interweaving the natural history of San Pedro into this all-too-human history, Tejani vividly describes how a wild coast was made into the engine of American power. A story of imperial dreams and personal ambition, A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth is necessary reading for anyone who seeks to understand what the United States was, what it is now, and what it will be.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Business

444 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 23, 2024

About the author

James Tejani grew up on San Pedro Bay and earned his PhD from Columbia University. He has received fellowships from the Huntington Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is an associate professor of history at California State University.

Reviews

[Al Huyssen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good read. Packed with information and beautiful visual descriptions of places in California, Arizona, even the Pacific Northwest. Brought back memories of many vacations and driving trips to the Sierra Nevada and up to the Oregon/WA coast. I also enjoyed how the LA story connects to big names in US history, Grant, Sherman, Jefferson Davis, Fremont, Stanford, and Harriman and events like California's gold rush, the Civil War, and the 1898 US attack on the Philippines. Reading was like a refresher course (I finished college 50 plus years ago). The most fascinating part is the marriage of Edward O. C. Ord (later a general of Civil War fame, who disliked slavery) and his wife Molly (a proslavery southerner) as they pursue land around LA and favors from proslavery politicians like Davis. in the end they reinvent themselves as pro-Union during the war. Hard to believe that would connect to the Port of LA story. But it does!

[Joseph Broderick · Rating 3 out of 5]

dry read

Lots of politics involved , not really a lot about the actual construction of the harbor. Only a small bit about the native cultivations that were destroyed.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why does the modern day metropolis of Los Angeles exist? Why is it where it is? What factors and decisions led to the creation of one the world’s busiest ocean ports in the unlikeliest of places, a former estuary with no natural protection for ships?

Professor James Tejani wondered that, too, as a child growing up in San Pedro, in the shadow of the Port of Los Angeles (POLA). Over 40% of all US shipping container traffic moves through POLA or the neighboring Port of Long Beach. This has had profound implications for the area surrounding the ports, the land routes leading to/from the ocean ports, and shaped the economies of the region.

Tejani turned his PhD thesis into a highly readable book that covers the Spanish colonial period through the US territorial expansion, the US civil war and the decision that the trans-continental freight route would terminate in Los Angeles. Our history is not pretty, but it is ours.

You will also learn about the cast of characters behind the place names in our region: Dominguez, Carson, Wilmington, Banning, Huntington, Harriman, Davidson, Ord. Who are they? What did they do? What did US slavery and the Civil War have to do with the founding of Los Angeles?

[Paul Narvaez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is less about the creation of the ports and more about little known stories and narratives of 19th century history. If you have an interest in the region it has much to teach. It's alot of information and it goes off in sometimes interesting directions be it about commerce, the Civil War, the native populations, the Spanish, the Mexicans, American politics and empire, the railroads, the Gold Rush, land speculation before it even really gets to Pedro and the Port of Los Angeles. I'm sure it took quite a while to research all this because much of it didn't seem to be very common knowledge.
I listened to it via audiobook and I enjoyed it.

[Stephanie Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not from CA originally, but I've lived here (SoCal) for some years now, so I'm always wanting to learn more about the state and surrounding states in general. This book was well written, extremely detailed, and beautifully descriptive. It highlighted important people in interesting ways and made several connections from past to present. It was interesting to read about the history of the port, the families and all dealings involved. It was a non-fiction I felt like I could draw connections to as I live in the area now.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

To think of LA and Long Beach having virtually nothing but nature where these ports are now. It seems that this was a difficult story to tell as it took a lot of research and relying on notes. It was a challenge for me as the reader to keep up with all the names and events taking place until finally the port was built.

This was written during the LA fires. Hard to imagine such devastation in this great city.

[Jenny Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dense work spanning 18th-century Spanish claims and falling just short of modern day, A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth will appeal to fans of military history, mapmaking, and political intrigue. Those interested in a natural history of the port can skip the bulk of the work and read the brief chapters at the end of each section.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Fuuuuuuu. . .
Wow. No can do.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well researched and presented with plenty of interesting narration and stories, I learned a lot about the history of my state!

[John Landes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A super interesting history of not just LA, but about the entirety of the founding and craziness of the American west coast. Tough people! 5⭐️

[Wang · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure what I got out of the book. The latter part of the book is quite tedious. The book ends basically when the construction began, so weird.

[Joe Rennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has some common threads with the development of Buffalo Harbor which was also man made where they excavated the mouth of Buffalo Creek

[M Redley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep look at the origins of today's Port of Los Angeles that goes far beyond the standard myths I remember (I grew up in Culver City).

Much of the book follows three figures previously ignored in the LA, CA and US story: 1. George Davidson - the scientist and US coast surveyor, apparently a leading scientist in his lifetime (I lived near Mt. Davidson in SF, 1970s.), 2. Edward O. C. Ord - Army officer and coast surveyor (later a Union army general under Grant who helped bring down Lee's Confederates in Virginia). Most men my age (Vietnam era) remember Fort Ord! and, 3. Mexican landowner Manuel Dominguez. Women characters (Molly Ord and Dominguez's wife) are present, too.

I knew nothing about Davidson and little of Ord before. Neither has a proper biography except on Wikipedia. The Dominguez name is known still around Los Angeles. What is less known, even by Dominguez descendants, is the story of how the family's land was acquired by the US, bayside land speculators, and (later) Los Angeles city. This book solves that mystery, a mega trillion dollar mystery given the port's annual business today. The Dominguez family did well anyhow. I like that this author didn't paint them as hapless victims. Highly recommend.