In these days of 3-hour round trip car commutes on impersonal and depressing freeways and $4 a gallon gas burdening the family budget, I was reminded this week of San Pedro and the City of Los Angeles’ alternate history which included public transportation.

Imagine being able to walk a block from the house and being able to take a street car to anywhere in the city over a network of tracks over 1,000 miles long. Imagine daily commutes spent enjoying a cup of coffee while reading a book or the newspaper instead of suffering stressful bumper to bumper traffic.  Imagine being able to see the beautiful San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains that ring the City of Angels during the entire year and not just being able to see them in the less smoggy winter months.

The story of Los Angeles going from having one of the greatest interurban railway systems in the country in the 1920’s through the 1940’s to a city of automobile traffic congestion, road rage and smog is a story of special interests, money, and national cultural and economic trends.  There may be a touch of film noir in some of the more conspiratorial theories.   Even Disney couldn’t keep its mittens off of the conspiracy as seen in their 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

So how does my daily car commute from Point Fermin, interurban railway in Los Angeles, and the Movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? intersect in the Rogue’s Yarn?

Earlier this week, a neighbor, who’s house is a little over a block away from our house in Point Fermin San Pedro, was removing some paving on a side yard. They uncovered the remnants of old railroad ties which once carried the tracks of the Pacific Electric Red Car. These Red Cars connected the entire region and ran all the way from Point Fermin at the southern end of San Pedro to the Base of the San Gabriel Mountains. This trolley ran less than a block from my house in 1920.  

There have been stories of the Red Car running through Point Fermin that I had heard before. After a quick Google Maps search I suspect, based on the curvature of the some of the lot lines, that the trolley ran just east of Pacific Avenue.

Track route?

There are some great web sites and images that have been posted on the web about the Pacific Electric Red Car’s history in San Pedro. The main line ran down Harbor Blvd. and there was a beautiful Pacific Electric Red Car Station around 5^th Street and Harbor.  All of these images come from the website of the Railway Preservation Resources.  The contact person is John Smatlak.  Many thanks to him for his site and these images.

There are some wonderful historical postcards posted of the harbor area in what is now the Ports O’ call and main channel showing the red cars in action.

harborpc1

harborpc21

It is a tragedy that a public transportation system which was once so ubiquitous and vital to the development of the region was dismantled in favor of freeways and the automobile. The effects of these transportation decisions redefined the region and created profound problems that affect the daily lives of all in the Southland.

Beyond the conspiracy theories, there were national cultural and economic forces following World War II which doomed the system.  As I will discuss next week in greater detail, the transportation network was a losing business for Pacific Electric.   The transportation system was a “loss leader” for the company in that it primarily served Henry E. Huntington’s other business interests in real estate and utility companies.  Next week I will discuss my theory of the dismantling of the Pacific Electric Red Car System and what the history and failure of the Pacific Electric Red Car tells us about mass transportation in Los Angeles. The following week I will discuss the future impact of the expansion of the existing Port of Los Angeles Red Car in San Pedro.