Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside is the world's tenth largest metropolitan area, with 18.2 million people over five counties.1 Los Angeles proper has about 3.972 million residents2 and is located along and near the coast of southern California, United States, in a basin surrounded by mountains and hills. It is the center of the world's film-making industry (although Mumbai produces more). This industry, the aircraft building industry and people in search of drier climes propelled its growth in the 20th century, growth which was supported by canals, water tunnels and acqueducts on a scale that surpassed classical Roma. The tallest completed building as of late winter 2017 is the partly tubular U.S. Bank Tower (73 story, 310 meters high), with the Bunker Hill Steps wrapping around its base. Other buildings of note the older City Hall, with a top modeled after the Mausoleum at Helicarnassus; the Theme Building at the main airport, inspired by movies about alien landings; Union Station with its echo-less cork-lined interior; and the wildly curvy Walt Disney Concert Hall. Also famous (and seen in many movies) is the 'Hollywood' hillside sign.3 Venice Beach, with its canals, is a tourist attraction.4
The city has a narrow connector down to San Pedro harbor, where it hosts one of the world's important container ports.5
Los Angeles International Airport in the city is one of the nation's busiest.6
Long Beach has a population of 474 thousand2 and is located south of the center of Los Angeles on San Pedro Bay. Its best known building is the Villa Riviera (277 feet, 1929), originally a hotel, now ownership-apartments.3 Besides being one of the world's important container ports5 Long Beach sits above the Wilmington Oil Field.7
Riverside is located about 97 kilometers east of Los Angeles; its city limits include a small mountain (over 400 meters). It has a population of 322 thousand.2 The city grew in the 20th century as a resort and for its dry climate.
The original Disneyland amusement theme park, still a tourist attraction,4 is in Anaheim, a suburb southeast of Los Angeles in the Santa Ana River valley. It has a population of 351 thousand,2 having grown rapidly in the 1950s.
Santa Ana is in the same valley, just west of the Santa Ana Mountains, and has a population of 335 thousand.2 It hosted an army base in World War II and veterans settled in the city after the war. The John Wayne International Airport in the city is one of the nation's busiest.
| Year | Population | Political entity |
| 2000 CE | 16,374,0008| United States of America | |
Historical Map
Pier, Manhattan Beach, a resort and suburb adjacent to Los Angeles, California, United States of America
Footnotes
1. Calculation in world-gazetteer.com, acceessed February 6, 2013.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_California_cities_by_population, accessed December 26, 2016 and February 7, 2017.
3. Information about buildings is from emporis.com, accessed February 8, 2017. The Wilshire Grand Center, which, at the time of writing is topped out but not completed, is taller than the U.S. Bank Tower.
4. http://www.touropia.com/tourist-attractions-in-california/#, accessed December 26, 2016.
5. Alastair Cooper, ed., The Times Atlas of the Oceans (Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1983), "commodity loading ports" map.
6. 45 busiest US airports by total passenger traffic (2014) table in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_the_United_States, accessed December 26, 2016.
7. The field extends into San Pedro Bay, and, on land, somewhat beyond the city limits. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_fields, accessed December 26, 2016, it is one the world's major fields.
8. Metropolitan figure from https://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/briefs/phc-t3/tables/tab03.txt, accessed December 26, 2016.