These days, Universal Studios covers approximately 415 acres, including the studio and the theme park. But back in the mid-1910s, when this photo was taken, this all there was when the Universal Film Manufacturing Company moved its first studio at the corner of Sunset and Gower into the San Fernando Valley in 1915. (I believe this view was taken from Lankershim Blvd looking west to Ventura Blvd. It was a smart move because obviously there was LOTS of room to grow. Back then, they still would have been filming on open air stages, and a charging people 25 cents to see movies being made from the Visitors Observation Platform. That included a boxed lunch, which sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
Universal Studios, Universal City in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, circa 1915
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The bridgework in the distance would have served Pacific Electric’s line over Cahuenga Pass, jumping the river to reach points north & west in the valley. The line would cross the Laemmle/Lankershim alignment at grade (with a station stop there) and run down between that roadway and the Cahuenga and Ventura highway surface (somewhere left and above in this view). This altered with the freeway extension through there. Rail lines and station were now placed above the boulevard which ran through an overpass.