In early March 1938, Southern California endured four days of extraordinarily heavy rains that resulted in devastating floods. Consequently, Los Angeles decided to engage the Army Corps of Engineers to pave over the Los Angeles river so that it could be better controlled. These days, it’s such an enduring part of the LA cityscape that it can be hard for us 21st century Angelenos to remember that it once looked like a regular river. This shot of it is circa 1938 and shows us what it looked like when facing north from what was then known as the Ninth St Viaduct, but is now called the Olympic Blvd Viaduct, east of downtown LA. (Source: CurbedLA)
This is roughly how that view looks these days.
The power lines on the east side are still there 87 years later? Particularly interesting in light (no pun intended) of the possible source of the Eaton Fire.
Thanks, Martin. Many years back, Huell Howser at PBS did a story on the Olympic Blvd Viaduct. Very informative, and they’re still re-running these 30 minute segments, a tribute to the craftsmanship of the Army Corps of Engineers, then and now. Howser was later at some remote place in the high desert, where they were laying tons of cement in a very similar project. Just fascinating to watch. They rerun the old Huell Howser episodes each night at 7:30 on KCET, channel 6 on Spectrum.
Santa Fe Railway 8th Street Coach Yard is on the west bank bordered by Santa Fe Avenue and the river. Passenger cars were serviced here with the locomotive roundhouse down at Redondo Junction. (Amtrak took over these places after the Class 1 railroads exited the passenger business from April 1971.) A small steam switcher appears to be working on the mainline next to the river. Trying to search for older images of this yard online won’t result in much. So this image is rather significant, historically speaking. The east bank appears to have open top G.S. (General Service) gondola cars that are being loaded with earth products ( sand, gravel, etc.) by a steam shovel that is on the other side of the cars.