After Los Angeles was flooded in torrential rain in 1938, the city engineers decided to concrete the entire L.A. River. It was a sensible plan at the time as the flooding caused much damage. Thus, the L.A. River eyesore was created. (This is the view from the Glendale/Hyperion Bridge, in 1937.) I’ve often wondered what it looked before the engineers got to work, and this photo shows us. Hmmm…it wasn’t exactly the Seine, the Thames, or Hudson, was it?