In this photo, a streetcar is running along First St as it stops at Alameda St in downtown LA. It was taken in 1918, when it was still quite normal to encounter horse-drawn carriages around town, as we can see on the right hand side of this photo. I’m a little surprised to see what I take to be a traffic cop in the middle of the intersection because all I can see are two automobiles, a street car and those horses—hardly a traffic jam.
Stanley G. says, “Alameda St. carried mainline steam trains in that era; hence the crossing gates.”
That same corner in June 2022. Nothing remains of the old view.
I think he might actually be a railroad flagman rather than the po-leece. The Southern Pacific downtown main crossed here and was heavily trafficked both night and day with freight and passenger movements (Central Station is just down the road). East First streetcar lines led to both the primary bridge crossing of the river and (via a turn) the Santa Fe’s La Grande station on their loop back into the city core. UP’s Salt Lake station was on the other side of the riverbank for several years prior to their shift to Central Station. In addition, the rise of autos made this entryway even more conjested and there are some surviving images of that bottleneck near the channel.