Today marks another auspicious local transportation anniversary – a century ago, the first streetcars rolled into the small outlying town of Van Nuys. On December 16, 1911, Pacific Electric Railway Company launched its service to the San Fernando Valley. Van…
Tag: featured
New And Powerful Transportation Research Tool: Metro Library Launches Robust Catalog Portal
Just in time for the holidays, we are pleased to make this major announcement: This afternoon, we rolled out our new online public access catalog. Times change — and so does technology. After 11 years with our previous system, it…
90 Years Ago Today: Los Angeles Railway Rolls Out “Information Men” Public Service
The December 5, 1921 issue of the Los Angeles Railway employee newsmagazine posed the question: “How would you like to be an information man?” An article titled “Information Men Help L.A., They’ll Tell The World!” appeared in Two Bells. Ninety…
Our “Grand Concourse”: Historic Images Of Wilshire Boulevard’s Double-Decker Buses & Other Forgotten History
We periodically highlight “Resources To Know” which lead you to important information sources for research, as well as the core collection of classic titles in the study of Los Angeles transit and transportation history. One indisputable work is Kevin Roderick’s Wilshire…
But Have You Seen This One?: Celebrating The Lesser-Known Historic Transit Photos Of Los Angeles
We are celebrating another achievement today: our Flickr online photo gallery has clocked 1.5 million views after just three years since we began offering up our digital images to the public. It was exactly nine months ago that we celebrated hitting the 1,000,000 mark. On…
Researching L.A. 101: Step-By-Step Instructions For Finding Historical Information About The Los Angeles Area
This past weekend, the Metro Transportation Library & Archive participated in the 6th Annual LA as Subject Archives Bazaar. The annual event brings together more than 80 exhibitors showcasing their collections, answering questions, networking amongst each other, and attending educational workshops,…
40 Years Ago Today: DASH Debuts As Mini-Bus In Downtown Los Angeles
The Mini-Bus, the predecessor to Los Angeles’ downtown DASH system, was launched forty years ago today. The Southern California Rapid Transit District‘s mini-bus rolled out for test runs on October 13, 1971, with public boardings beginning five days later. …
Los Angeles History Comes Alive All Day, All In One Place: Next Week’s LA As Subject Annual Archives Bazaar Will Be Largest Ever
History comes alive once again on Saturday, October 22, as more than 80 of Southern California’s rare and archival collections come together at the 6th Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar. The daylong event is hosted by the USC Libraries and…
25 Years Ago Today: Los Angeles’ Red Line Subway Breaks Ground
Today marks an auspicious anniversary: 25 years ago today, leaders across the region came together to celebrate the groundbreaking for Los Angeles’ modern Metro Rail subway system. After years of planning, ground was broken on September 29, 1986 at the site of the future…
Streetcar In The Sea Update: More About The 1950s “Transit Reefs” Of Los Angeles
Back in May, we wrote about old Los Angeles Transit Lines streetcars being dumped off the coast of Redondo Beach to create artificial reefs. That post was inspired by photo essays in the New York Times and other publications published…