Los Angeles

Yesteryard: Los Angeles · Season 1

Five walks, from downtown to the sea. Each one is a walk of about an hour, or a twenty-minute listen at home. Venice Beach is free now.

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   Yesteryard · Venice Beach · Episode 1

   The Man Who Started It All

   Venice Beach’s founder story, and what’s left of his town.

   Episode 1 · Venice Beach

   Venice Beach · The Man Who Started It All

   Venice Beach’s founder story, and what’s left of his town.

   Free · listen nowWalk about 1 hr 30 · at home 23 min

2. Downtown LA

   Episode 2 · Downtown LA

   Downtown LA · Bunker Hill to Broadway

   The city bulldozed the hill where it used to live. The street where it went to dream is still here.

   In the app’s betaWalk about 1 hr 15 · at home 29 min

3. Culver City

   Episode 3 · Culver City

   Culver City · Screenland

   Harry Culver sold a town to the movies. The movies moved on.

   Coming soonWalk about 1 hr · at home 21 min

4. Santa Monica

   Episode 4 · Santa Monica

   Santa Monica · The Port That Wasn’t

   Santa Monica was founded to be the port of Los Angeles. It lost.

   Coming soonWalk about 1 hr · at home 18 min

5. Venice Beach

   Episode 5 · Venice Beach

   Venice Beach · Today

   A town where the art is outside, built by whoever turned up.

   Coming soonWalk about 1 hr · at home about 20 min

Photos: Downtown LA: Difference engine, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Culver City: Jengod, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Santa Monica: web4camguy, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Venice Beach today: John Margolies, Library of Congress.

Places

Every place below has a guide in the app, with walks.

• Venice Beach

  Abbot Kinney's 1905 'Venice of America': a boardwalk that never calmed down, and canals that outlived his own.

  29 places · 4 walks in the app · 2 episodes: Free

• Downtown LA

  Where the pueblo began and the trains still meet: El Pueblo, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Bunker Hill and Broadway, walked between the stations.

  48 places · 5 walks in the app · Episode: In the app’s beta

• Santa Monica

  Where the trains, the bluff and the pier all reach the sea: a town that kept reinventing its waterfront, from 1890s railways to a rotating steel head.

  32 places · 3 walks in the app · Episode: Coming soon

• Culver City

  The town Harry Culver built for the movies: MGM's lot, Ince's mansion, a cabinet of curiosities, and warehouses turned into experiments.

  22 places · 3 walks in the app · Episode: Coming soon

• Pasadena

  The winter town of the rich that became the Athens of the West: the Arroyo's Craftsman houses and bridges, Old Town, the Civic Center and the Rose Parade's home, by the A Line.

  31 places · 3 walks in the app

• Exposition Park & USC

  An 1872 fairground turned Olympic park, a campus from 1880, and the "millionaire row" mansions of West Adams, a stop off the E Line.

  27 places · 2 walks in the app

• Highland Park & the Arroyo

  The Arroyo's Arts and Crafts suburb on the A Line: Lummis's stone house, rescued Victorians, the 1896 bridge, Figueroa's old theatre and Chicken Boy.

  22 places · 2 walks in the app

• San Pedro & the harbor

  LA's port end: a battleship, a lighthouse on the bluff, the Korean Bell and the tide pools, where the city meets the harbor.

  5 places · 1 walk in the app

Walks across the city

Longer walks from the app’s Los Angeles guide.

• Walk

  Downtown: pueblo to Bunker Hill

  12 stops · 5.0 km · 4 hr 30

  From the 1939 station and the founding plaza through the civic centre, up to Grand Avenue, down Angels Flight into the old core of markets and movie palaces.

• Walk

  Hollywood Boulevard

  5 stops · 3.4 km · 2 hr 30

  Along the stars from Vine to Highland, past the Capitol tower and two of Grauman's palaces, then up to the Bowl.

• Walk and ride

  Wright house, observatory and Mount Hollywood

  3 stops · 4.2 km · 4 hr

  Hollyhock House by the Vermont/Sunset station, the DASH bus up to the observatory, then a trail climb from the observatory grounds to the summit.

• Walk

  Museum Row

  5 stops · 2.2 km · 5 hr

  Tar pits, Urban Light and LACMA, the Academy Museum and the Petersen on one Wilshire block, then up Fairfax to the 1934 market.

• Metro

  E Line to the sea

  4 stops · 32 km · 5 hr

  Downtown to the Pacific on one light-rail line: the library by 7th St/Metro Center, the Olympic Coliseum and science centre at Expo Park/USC, and the pier at the end.

Bike, Metro and bus routes

Ride along and the app tells you what you’re passing.

• Bike

  The beach → Culver City by bike

  10 stops · 11 km · 1 hr

  Up the north bank of Ballona Creek from the beach path: the wetlands, under the freeways, through Del Rey and Culver City to the Expo Bike Path at National Boulevard.

• Bike

  Riverside Drive → the Arroyo Seco by bike

  13 stops · 12 km · 1 hr 15

  Downstream through the Glendale Narrows: Griffith Park, the La Kretz and Hyperion bridges, Frogtown and Taylor Yard, to the Arroyo Seco, near the A Line at Lincoln/Cypress.

• Bus

  Santa Monica → Zuma on the 134

  12 stops · 32 km

  Metro 134 west from Santa Monica: along the bluff, down to PCH, past Will Rogers and Topanga, the Malibu Pier and Surfrider Beach, to Zuma (the line goes on to Trancas).

• Metro

  Little Tokyo → Pomona by Metro

  27 stops · 56 km

  The A Line north from Little Tokyo/Arts District: Union Station, Chinatown, over the LA River, up the Arroyo Seco to Highland Park and Pasadena, then along the foothills to Pomona North.

• Metro

  7th Street → Long Beach by Metro

  23 stops · 34 km

  The A Line south from 7th St/Metro Center: Washington Boulevard, then Pacific Electric's old line past Slauson Junction, Watts and Compton into Long Beach and its downtown loop.

• Metro

  Santa Monica → East LA by Metro

  35 stops · 35 km · 1 hr 7

  The whole E Line, 35 km in 67 minutes: from Downtown Santa Monica on the old Air Line right-of-way, past Culver City and Exposition Park, through the downtown tunnel, over the river to Boyle Heights…

• Bus

  Westwood → MacArthur Park on the 720

  16 stops · 16 km

  Metro Rapid 720 east along Wilshire (it starts in Downtown Santa Monica): Westwood, Beverly Hills, Museum Row, the Miracle Mile, the Wiltern and Koreatown, Bullocks Wilshire, MacArthur Park. It runs…

• Bike

  Will Rogers → Torrance by bike

  23 stops · 34 km · 3 hr 30

  The whole beach path south: Santa Monica Pier, Venice, round the marina on Washington and Admiralty, over Ballona Creek, past Dockweiler and the plants, the Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo piers, to…