Paving the way for the demolition of a more than three-decade old chapel along the waterfront, the Long Beach Harbor Commission Monday approved a plan to tear down a trailer that has served as a religious beacon to sea men and women over the years.

Next month construction crews building a new cable stay bridge that connects downtown Long Beach to Terminal Island plan to knock down the small non-denominational chapel to make way for a new wider bridge lane.

“It is sad,” said Richard McKenna, president of the International Seafarers Center of Long Beach/Los Angeles, the organization that hosts the religious sanctuary for seabound crews looking for a place to find solace.

For years, the tiny chapel – squeezed between the bridge and the Long Beach Container Terminal along Pico Avenue – has been used mostly for Korean crews coming ashore looking for religious services. But it’s also been home to impromptu memorials after accidents at sea.

“To a certain extent it is the end of an era, but we are forward looking,” McKenna said.

He said the group will continue to help arrange ministries of all faiths aboard ships and is looking to create a separate space inside what will remain of their center next door for religious counseling.