L.A. Transit & Transportation History
Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the submission to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley the final report of The Los Angeles 2000 Committee, LA 2000: A City for the Future. A compelling read in its entirety, the report is a…
The silent film era of the 1910’s and 1920’s was a period of explosive growth for Los Angeles. For example, the number of automobiles registered in Los Angeles County quadrupled in just eight years, from 1914-1922. This transition to…
At approximately 9:20 p.m. on this date in 1913, a Pacific Electric streetcar on the Venice Short Line slammed into another one on the same track just 50 feet east of Vineyard Junction. The accident, near the present-day intersection of Pico Boulevard…
“Every city has had its boom, but the history of Los Angeles…should be regarded as one continuous boom punctuated at intervals with major explosions.” —Carey McWilliams, Southern California: An Island on the Land, 1946 Metro Transportation Library, Archives & Records…
This week marks the anniversary of the 1937 National Transportation Week celebrations in Los Angeles. We reviewed the event for last year’s 75th anniversary, and included video footage of child actress Shirley Temple helping out with the launch of the new PCC…
[Above: Metro Library’s new interactive timeline for Los Angeles transit history. “X” out the introduction box and move the chronology slider along the bottom to reposition the timeline. You may click on each transit operator for more information and links…
Going back as far as at least the Gold Rush, California has been built on promotion — and we lost one of our greatest boosters this week. Television host Huell Howser criss-crossed the state promoting our diverse history and culture, uncovering…
It was announced yesterday that plans to bring streetcars back to Broadway in downtown Los Angeles took a giant step forward. Business owners and residents with an approximate three-block radius of the proposed streetcar route voted to tax themselves to…
Only four cities have hosted the modern Olympic Games more than once. When the world returned to Los Angeles in 1984, fifty-two years after its inaugural Games, the Olympics had changed: 140 nations were represented, compared to 37 in 1932. Even…
Millions around the globe begin to set their sights on London for the next few weeks, making this a great time to take a look back at Los Angeles’ experience with the Olympics. As one of the very few cities to…
