Long Beach was a popular getaway for Los Angelenos seeking to escape the inland summer heat in 1903 when Arthur Parson built the islands of Naples in the marshy Bixby Slough at the mouth of the San Gabriel River in Long Beach, California. The design was inspired by the canals and gondolas of the “Venice of America” community developed by Abbot Kinney near Santa Monica to the north.
Completed in the 1920s, it was severely damaged by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, but survived to become a jewel of the coast.
Photographs by Daniel Stiel.
Abetica Studios 
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