Photos like this give me the heebie-jeebies. We’re looking north up Vermont Ave toward a streetcar turning west onto 3rd Street. It was taken in 1939 when Los Angeles was spiderwebbed with streetcar tracks. But I fear for the safety of passengers. All that’s separating them from a collision course with a reckless driver is a stripe of white paint and that little barrier so low that it barely rates as a barrier. I know cars didn’t go quite so fast back then, but still. This sight make me slightly sweaty.
This is roughly how that view looked in May 2024.
They’re wedged between moving cars on one side and a trolley car on the other side–and they called the waiting area a “safety” island!
Not only was Los Angeles “spider webbed with streetcar tracks,” but also spider webbed with overhead electric wires and lined with telephone poles. I like that you can look across most city streets now and those poles are gone and the wires underground. Much nicer views.
I also wonder how that traffic worked…if the P.E. car is to pick up that passenger, where are the two automobiles supposed to go?
Has anybody noticed that Artie Shaw and Orchestra played on the northeast corner nightly. Pretty cool.
I hadn’t, so thanks for pointing that out.
That would have been the Palomar Ballroom which burned to the ground on October 2, 1939.
I was wondering if it was the Palomar.
The “Wait Islands” that Pacific Electric placed in the middle of the street were apparently done so with much naivety. A single yellow light buried in a small dome just above the pavement was the only warning for careless or distracted drivers. The potential for harm to the folks standing in the street with busy traffic dangerously close to catch a ride would be unthinkable today.
Those streetcars are long gone! What a neat photo. Also goes to show you that there was a lot of traffic in LA back then, even with streetcars. The vintage street photos are always a blast to look at. Some things never change.