Thursday, November 23, 2023

Los Angeles And San Diego

Los Angeles is the largest metropolitan area in the U.S., after New York. It is on the coast of southern California and was the natural destination of migrants moving west. It is the city that both introduced the world to the postwar car culture and where the internet began. You are probably already familiar with what the area looks like because it is also home to the best-known movie industry in the world and so much of what is seen on television was filmed there.

Los Angeles is also the port where so many goods from Asia arrive. The following image of endless rows of shipping containers, awaiting transfer to truck or train, is from Google Earth.


For Los Angeles to grow into the major city that it is today, an aqueduct had to be built to carry water from further inland. Today, the Colorado River that flows across America's west is virtually drained before it reaches the sea because of the voracious demand for water.

The cities of California tend to have Catholic names. But what it is really all about is the land of Protestant-style individualism. As we saw in the posting on this blog, "The Would-Have-Been Nation Of Westland", July 2017, the kind of people who headed west were people who didn't want to be told what to do by the establishment "back east".

This is El Pueblo de Los Angeles historical monument, the Spanish mission that was the beginning of Los Angeles. First image from Google Earth. The name of the city means "The Angels". When Mexico became independent of Spain, Los Angeles passed to Mexican control, and then to the U.S. after the war of 1848.


There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0565689,-118.2385435,2a,60y,30.48h,90.71t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZagipxetmJwtAbCQtkeVKw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Here is the Historic Core of the city that was the city center for the first half of the Twentieth Century. There are more views of the downtown area. The first two images are from Google Earth.



One of the best-known sights around Los Angeles is the Hollywood Sign. The first image is from Google Earth.


https://www.google.com/maps/@34.127285,-118.3265068,3a,75y,72.65h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMPOZeOzI6OdCi9vwB6GVgm2nWujqqhoFWUD4-C!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMPOZeOzI6OdCi9vwB6GVgm2nWujqqhoFWUD4-C%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya295.32455-ro0-fo100!7i7168!8i3584

This is the neighborhood of Hollywood, the sign is above it. Hollywood is all about the movie industry. Few streets in the world are famous in themselves. Los Angeles has several such famous streets. One is Sunset Boulevard, along which the following scenes begin. As the city that introduced the world to the modern car culture, we shouldn't be surprised that Los Angeles has famous streets, three others are Wilshire Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard and, Santa Monica Boulevard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0904301,-118.3289199,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svqzhVBRKgWWOBHXCLsfyLQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

The following image of Sunset Blvd is from Google Earth.


Here is the "Walk of Fame" on Hollywood Boulevard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1016381,-118.3337029,3a,60y,1.43h,77.1t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sbNYUoj4A25Lr9ryjUhOJhQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Another well-known Los Angeles neighborhood that is associated with the movie industry is Beverly Hills. The following views there also begin along Sunset Boulevard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0736053,-118.4004235,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBt2kTVqEvm9hDDyOIq964A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

A lot of movie stars and other celebrities have lived in this housing development in Beverly Hills, the Trousdale Estates.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1045525,-118.3967976,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1siD_UrMPSmELECqFermqxnw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Not far from Beverly Hills is the vast and well-known university, UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles. This is actually the birthplace of the internet.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0694343,-118.4449165,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZu1JlQw-VCegDwHddNCLfw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The Greater Los Angeles area extends eastward to San Bernardino. Here is a residential neighborhood.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1258193,-117.2851434,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGzXr19rZ3ulbM4vFeoMGyQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

South of Los Angeles, along the border with Mexico, is the city of San Diego. Like Los Angeles, it began with a Spanish mission during the Eighteenth Century. The focal point of the city later moved to what is now known as the Gaslamp Quarter. The first image, from Google Earth, is of downtown San Diego.

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