This year the Port of Long Beach turns 100 years old. To start the new year and the Centennial celebration, the Port has launched a new website marking a century of progress from humble beginnings to one of the world’s busiest seaports.

The website at www.polb.com 100years features remembrances of the Port’s storied past, a photographic timeline, and a place for community members to submit their own Port photographs, videos and stories.

One hundred years ago, the Long Beach community and its leaders had the foresight to establish a Port that would generate economic opportunity and jobs for the region. Visitors to the website will see that as international trade has flourished, the Port of Long Beach has flourished as well, transforming itself into a recognized world leader in service, environmental programs and proactive outreach.

“The growth and prosperity of the Port’s first century has clearly realized a community’s dreams by bringing business, trade and economic opportunity to Long Beach and the surrounding area,” said Nick Sramek, President of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners. “This Centennial year we invite the community to celebrate with us, and to share their own memories and recollections.”

Throughout 2011, the Port’s regular events such as public tours and Green Port Fest will take on an historical theme to reflect the Centennial. And there will be special events as well, to be announced throughout the year.

The first delivery at the Port of Long Beach was a shipment of lumber from the Pacific Northwest that arrived on June 2, 1911 at Municipal Pier 1, the Port’s only pier. Later that month a community celebration formally dedicated Pier 1.

Today, the Port of Long Beach is the second-busiest container seaport in North America, with more than $100 billion in trade moving across its wharfs each year and sustaining more than 300,000 jobs in Southern California.