Before Los Angeles’ famous streetcar network became electrified, the city ran cable-driven streetcars much like the ones up in San Francisco. In this 1893 photo, we seeing one of LA’s first cable cars as it runs northward up Broadway at 2nd Street. Interestingly, it looks like the whole thing is open to the elements—too bad if it’s raining! That building on the left with the pyramid roof was LA’s second city hall, which stood at 226 Broadway between 2nd and 3rd Streets until the current one was built in the mid 1920s.

This is roughly the same view in June 2022. The difference is staggering—and staggeringly awful.