Published in 1965 from 1964 cartographic work, the USGS map titled “San Pedro” presents one of Southern California’s most storied maritime districts at a revealing moment in its modern transformation. Drawn at the highly detailed 1:24,000 scale, it captures the coastal edge of Los Angeles where city, harbor, and ocean converge. San Pedro appears not as an abstract port name, but as a dense urban landscape of streets, neighborhoods, waterfront works, and rising ground above the Pacific. The map’s careful use of contour lines gives form to the hills and slopes that define the peninsula, while its urban tinting distinguishes the built environment from more open coastal terrain, creating a vivid portrait of land use in the mid-1960s.

The United States Geological Survey brought to this sheet the institutional precision that made its topographic series indispensable to engineers, planners, scientists, and travelers. Founded in the late nineteenth century to systematically study and map the nation’s terrain, the USGS became the authoritative visual interpreter of American landscapes. In “San Pedro,” that tradition is especially compelling because the subject is both natural and intensely engineered. The mapmaker’s language is restrained but exacting: contours, shoreline, roads, harbor installations, and settlement patterns combine to create a document that is at once scientific and historically expressive. Its red urban shading, fine linework, and measured symbology reveal how federal cartography translated a complex metropolitan waterfront into a legible, elegant system.

San Pedro’s geography gives the map much of its drama. The city occupies a commanding position on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, overlooking the San Pedro Channel and the Pacific Ocean. Its terrain is neither flat nor incidental; the contours show a district shaped by coastal bluffs, ridges, and descending streets that fall toward the harbor and shoreline. This topographical character is essential to understanding the place, for San Pedro’s identity has always depended on its meeting of elevation and sea. The map records the physical setting that made it strategically valuable: a protective harbor, proximity to deep water, and commanding views across the channel toward the maritime approaches to Los Angeles.

The harbor landscape is one of the map’s most historically resonant features. Outer Harbor and the waterfront infrastructure speak to San Pedro’s long role as the maritime gateway of Los Angeles, a function that expanded dramatically through the twentieth century. Docks, basins, transport corridors, and industrial edges appear alongside residential streets, showing how closely everyday urban life was entwined with shipping, fishing, naval activity, and global trade. In the 1960s, this was a district poised between older waterfront patterns and the larger-scale port development that would follow. As a result, the map preserves a valuable snapshot of San Pedro before later expansions and transformations further reshaped the harbor and surrounding neighborhoods.

Viewed today, “San Pedro” is especially evocative as a record of changing land use along the Southern California coast. The red-shaded urban fabric reveals a densely settled community, while lighter areas, coastal margins, and parks indicate spaces not yet absorbed into the same intensity of development. Streets and neighborhoods are fixed in fine detail, inviting comparison with the contemporary city and its altered waterfront, transportation networks, and population patterns. The map’s beauty lies in this duality: it is a precise topographical instrument and a historical portrait of a maritime city in transition. For collectors of coastal California, Los Angeles history, or USGS cartography, it offers a richly layered view of place, terrain, and time.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• San Pedro
• Los Angeles
• San Pedro Channel
• Pacific Ocean
• Outer Harbor
• Various streets and neighborhoods within San Pedro
• Nearby parks and coastal features

Historical context & cartographic details

• Map title: San Pedro
• Published by the US Geological Survey (USGS)
• Created in 1964 and published in 1965
• Historical topographical map at a scale of 1:24,000
• Shows San Pedro, California, and surrounding areas
• Highlights the densely populated region of San Pedro, including coastlines and urban infrastructure
• Uses colors and contour lines to indicate topography
• Red shading marks urban and populated areas, contrasted against lighter colors for unpopulated regions
• Depicts elevation levels through contour lines, showing the landform characteristics of the San Pedro area
• Reflects an urban area before extensive later developments, helping illustrate changes in land use and population density over time

Looking for a particular place? Review the detailed images to confirm that the town, landmark or feature you have in mind appears on the map. If you are unsure, ask our workshop to check before you order.

Detailed maps are especially rewarding at larger sizes, where names, boundaries and decorative features have more room to be appreciated. Use the close-up preview and size guide to choose the right scale for your wall.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

Where personalisation is available, you can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. See personalised map examples.

Every piece is printed to museum-grade archival standards using fade-resistant pigment inks on acid-free matte paper. Choose an unframed map print, framed map or canvas using the finish options above. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.

With its rich detail and strong sense of place, this map makes a considered gift for a new home, anniversary, retirement or anyone with a personal connection to the area shown. Still deciding? Explore our collection of rare old and vintage maps to discover another place, period or style.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.