LAist: LAistory: The 1925 "Hollywood Subway"

cwylde

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:44:09 -0800

If you want to ride the Red Cars. Several operate at the Orange Empire (Pacific Electric term) Railway Museum in Perris. Come on out. It's L.A. past in the Inland Empire. www.oerm.org

QuietTristan

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:25:26 -0800

I wish we had a subway that went somewhere !!!!

bobzwol

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:56:59 -0800

I had an opportunity to be on a tour of the old subway station back in 1985 on the 30th anniversary date of its closing. It was like going down into King Tut’s Tomb. Friends and family told me how the immediate area around the Subway Terminal Building and downtown Glendale dove into immediate economic ruin after the line closed in 1955. It disgusts me that the politics of the time abandoned this line in favor of the still incomplete Glendale Freeway. How wonderful it would be if it was still around!

Lindsay William-Ross

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:15:27 -0800

jayson1418--I remember! I'd had this one planned for quite some time, so I knew it would come close to one just on PE. The story of Pacific Electric, (and Henry Huntington) and the Red Cars and LARy (Yellow) cars and the Kelker, DeLeuw report (and all the other branches in the saga) is HUGE. I'm not sure I could do it justice in an LAistory post. Of course, a fun way to learn about what happened is to rent "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" I have a list a mile long of LAistory posts I'd like to do, but I am open to suggestion... Any requests?

darkstar4671

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:55:53 -0800

Awesome! Thanks for doing this excellent piece... LA thinks needs to wake up, but everyone is too 'high' on themselves.

jayson1418

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:57:15 -0800

A few months ago I requested a "Pacific Electric Railway" article in this section. This is close to it. I'm grateful you guys are bringing awareness to such a colossal "back-pedaling" in LA history and contemporary infrastructure. Thanks for putting in time and doing it justice. what a great piece!

Tom Lewis

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:25:41 -0800

holy crap that was great

brainylagirl

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:17:34 -0800

Nice piece, Lindsay. Thanks for this. It is sad to see "what might have been." Hopefully our civic leaders can make (an extremely scaled-back model of) this happen, now. Better late than never, eh?

vega

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:58:03 -0800

Great piece of research.. The city's forefathers at least had the foresight to begin the process of public transit, even though they failed..

Callie Miller

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:45:53 -0800

Imagine what this city would be like...imagine...if that proposed map was developed and in use today. So sad.

fabricio

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:42:53 -0800

Most big cities, even in more under-developed countries, had a subway system pretty wrapped up in the 1930... LA is only 50 years behind...

aldo

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:37:18 -0800

That proposed rail map makes me cry. If only.....