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84-640: The Hollywood Subway , as it is most commonly known, officially the Belmont Tunnel , was a subway tunnel used by the interurban streetcars (the "Red Cars") of the Pacific Electric Railway . It ran from its northwest entrance in today's Westlake district to the Subway Terminal Building , in the Historic Core , the business and commercial center of Los Angeles from around the 1910s through

168-640: A complicated stock and bond transaction, Huntington conveyed his 50% of Pacific Electric to the Southern Pacific, while he acquired SP's 45% interest in the Los Angeles Railway. In addition, Huntington conveyed the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway to the Southern Pacific. Huntington retained control of the Los Angeles Railway , the narrow gauge street car system known locally as "Yellow Cars," until

252-554: A controlling interest in this company was sold off by Huntington's estate in 1944. In what was called the "Great Merger" of September 1, 1911, the Southern Pacific created a new Pacific Electric Railway Company, with all electrical operations now under the Pacific Electric name. The constituent railroads were: Following these acquisitions, PE was the largest operator of interurban electric railway passenger service in

336-550: A franchise plan with three-cent fare plan to the Los Angeles City Council, a plan which, if accepted, would have handicapped the other railways severely. Huntington countered with a ticket book which gave the rider 500 miles (800 km) of travel for $ 6.25 (equivalent to $ 212 in 2023), which undercut the Harriman strategy. The Council vetoed the franchise idea, unable to believe adequate service could be provided for such

420-605: A grand style. The Subway was widely met with success, as it rivaled Main Street Station as the busiest in Southern California, from the 1920s to the 1950s. Faster than the automobile and at 6¢ a fare, ridership reached an all-time high during World War II: in 1944, electric trains carried an estimated 65,000 passengers in and out of the Subway Terminal each day, which reckons out to more than 20 million per year. After

504-469: A line from Monrovia to Glendora . The system reached La Habra in 1908. By 1910 PE operated nearly 900 miles (1,400 km) of track. Routes had been built into or passed through areas just beginning to grow. 1905 was the Pacific Electric's most profitable year, when the road made $ 90,711 (equivalent to $ 3.08 million in 2023). Profits from the Huntington Land and Improvement Company made up for

588-481: A low fare. Then, on April 14, 1903, Harriman bought Hook's Los Angeles Traction Company, which ran lines within the downtown area and, through its California Pacific subsidiary, was constructing a line from Los Angeles to San Pedro . The final confrontation came over a bidding war for the 6th Street franchise, in which the franchise (thought to be worth maybe $ 10,000), finally went to the top bidder for $ 110,000 (equivalent to $ 3.73 million in 2023), with Harriman

672-510: A more extensive regional mass-transit system. In 1957, it was given the authority to operate transit lines. In 1958, the California state government through its Public Utility Commission took over the remaining and most popular lines from Metropolitan Coach Lines. The MTA also purchased the remaining streetcar "Yellow Car" lines of the successor of the Los Angeles Railway , then called Los Angeles Transit Lines. LARy/LATL had been purchased from

756-522: A mural of a Red Car by artist Tait Roelofs, which glows in the dark. The substation building and the portal arch were integrated into a park for the building's residents. In 2007, the Subway Terminal Building was renovated into Metro 417, a luxury apartment building. The developers restored the building's natural stone exterior and removed the drop ceiling from the ornate lobbies. The underground station area remains, but access to what remains of

840-643: A point near Bimini Baths and providing connections in Hollywood. A branch would have run to Santa Monica in the west. The monument has a rich history dating back to the early 1920s. Responding to the traffic congestion that clogged the streets of downtown, the California Railroad Commission in 1922 issued Order 9928, which commissioned the Pacific Electric company to dig a subway for new trains to bypass downtown's busy streets and highways. Plans for

924-438: A tunnel; the first hub, Main Street Station , which served passengers boarding trains to the south and east, was reached by trains sharing the streets. To loosen traffic congestion that clogged the streets, the California Railroad Commission in 1922 issued Order No. 9928, which called the Pacific Electric to build an electrified tunnel to bypass downtown's busy streets. Plans for the second station for electric trains to

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1008-537: Is at hand when we should commence building suburban railroads out of the city." Hellman added that he had already tasked engineer Epes Randolph to survey and lay out the company's first line which would be to Long Beach. In that same year, Huntington and Hellman incorporated a new entity, the Pacific Electric Railway of California, formed to construct new electric rail lines to connect Los Angeles with surrounding cities. Hellman and his group of investors owned

1092-577: The Belmont Tunnel / Toluca Substation and Yard . The monument site is bounded by 2nd Street and the Beverly Boulevard viaduct to the north, Lucas Avenue to the west, Emerald Street uphill to the south, and Toluca Street to the east. Currently, the Belmont Station Apartments stand in front of the tunnel entrance. Early plans for a subway line in Los Angeles included the same alignment as the built tunnel, but continuing further northwest to

1176-596: The Los Angeles Motor Bus Company . A public referendum chose the latter in May 1923. The first service began in August 1923, and by 1925 had 53 miles of bus routes, the second-most in the nation after Chicago . PE operated frequent freight trains under electric power throughout its service area (as far as 65 miles [105 km]) to Redlands , including operating electrically powered Railway Post Office routes, one of

1260-405: The Los Angeles Railway . When his uncle Collis died, Henry lost a boardroom battle for control of the Southern Pacific to Union Pacific President E. H. Harriman . Huntington then decided to focus his energies on Southern California. In May 1901, Hellman, who had been Southern California's leading banker for almost three decades (and owned much property down there), wrote Huntington that "the time

1344-536: The San Fernando Valley , La Habra , Redlands and Riverside , with branches to Colton and San Bernardino . He simultaneously created the Los Angeles Land Company. Huntington owned almost all the stock in the companies, with token amounts allotted to company directors. Although the company allowed Huntington to proceed with construction plans unencumbered by outside interference, the poor state of

1428-588: The Santa Fe Railway . In July 1908, Huntington leased all the lines of the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway to Harriman. In 1909 he sold the systems in Fresno and Santa Clara County to the Southern Pacific. Talks paused after the death of Harriman on September 9, 1909, but resumed in early 1910. On September 27, 1910, Huntington and Southern Pacific management came to a final agreement. In

1512-541: The Subway Terminal Building at the corner of Fourth and Hill Streets, by Pershing Square (due east). Trains through the tunnel were powered by a new substation — Toluca No. 51 — which was built in the yard next to the tunnel's portal. The Subway funneled trains through Westlake and Hollywood to Santa Monica, North Hollywood, and Glendale, cutting seven miles (11 km) or more off similar journeys on rails running along Alameda Street and Exposition Boulevard, which funneled train traffic south and east in Southern California to

1596-520: The " Wig-Wag " crossing signals. A Christmas tree lot was operated in the small stub yard at the northwest corner of Willow Street and Long Beach Boulevard – the stock arrived in and was stored in a steel sided box car until the Christmas trees were prepared for sale – the busy intersection was where dual trackage departed Long Beach Boulevard and joined the private right-of-way from Huntington Beach and Seal Beach towards Los Angeles. The crossing signal there

1680-509: The "Yellow Cars" and carried more passengers than the PE's "Red Cars" since they ran in the most densely populated portions of Los Angeles, including south to Hawthorne and along Pico Boulevard to near West Los Angeles to terminate at the huge Sears Roebuck store and distribution center (the L.A. Railway's most popular line, the " P " line). The Yellow Cars' unusual narrow gauge PCC streetcars , by now painted MTA two-tone green, continued to operate until

1764-604: The 1920s profits were good and the lines were extended to the Pasadena area, to the beaches at Santa Monica, Del Rey, Manhattan/Redondo/Hermosa Beach and Long Beach in Los Angeles County, and to Newport Beach and Huntington Beach in Orange County. Extra service beyond the normal schedules was provided on weekends, particularly in the late afternoon when passengers wanted to return simultaneously. Comedian Harold Lloyd highlighted

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1848-678: The 1950s. The Subway Terminal was one of the Pacific Electric Railway’s two main hubs, the other being the Pacific Electric Building at 6th and Main. Numerous lines proceeded from the San Fernando Valley , Glendale , Santa Monica and Hollywood into the tunnel in Westlake and traveled southeast under Crown and Bunker Hill towards the Subway Terminal. The two-track tunnel, 1.045 miles (1.682 km) long, cut roughly eight miles (13 km) off rail travel through some of

1932-587: The 6th and Main terminal), on 4th Street, and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of downtown Los Angeles toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena, and Torrance. The system had four districts: Electric trolleys first appeared in Los Angeles in 1887. In 1895 the Pasadena & Pacific Railway was created from a merger of the Pasadena and Los Angeles Railway and the Los Angeles Pacific Railway (to Santa Monica.) The Pasadena & Pacific Railway boosted Southern California tourism, living up to its motto "from

2016-571: The Belmont Tunnel on the morning of June 19, 1955. Shortly thereafter, Southern Pacific lifted the tracks from the Subway, shut up the Subway Terminal Building , disconnected the Toluca Substation, and abandoned the properties. In the 1960s, the city briefly conscripted the Subway for impounded automobiles, and later as a makeshift disaster shelter. In the mid-1960s the middle portion of the tunnel

2100-449: The Hellman group sold the rest of their shares and bonds in PE and LAIU to Huntington and Harriman for $ 1.2 million (equivalent to $ 40.7 million in 2023). Huntington and Harriman were now equal partners in ownership of the Pacific Electric. The Hellman syndicate retained their 45% interest in the Los Angeles Railway , which they thought would eventually declare dividends. By 1905,

2184-609: The Huntington estate by National City Lines in 1945. The MTA started operating all lines as a single system on March 3, 1958. The Los Angeles-to-Long Beach passenger rail line served the longest, from July 4, 1902, until April 9, 1961. It was both the first and last interurban passenger line of the former Pacific Electric system. It was replaced by the Motor Coach 36f ("F" representing Freeway Flyer) route. The line, which used long stretches of open country running on private right-of-way,

2268-700: The Los Angeles MTA until the agency was reorganized and relaunched as the Southern California Rapid Transit District in September 1964. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the merger of Pacific Electric into the Southern Pacific Railroad on August 12, 1965. Prior to the merger, PE's lucrative freight service had been by Southern Pacific diesel-electric locomotives on the heavy-duty PE rail-bed and rails and tripping

2352-486: The Los Angeles River was in streets shared with automobiles and trucks. Virtually all street crossings were at-grade, and increasing automobile traffic led to decreasing Red Car speeds on much of its trackage. At its nadir, the busy Santa Monica Boulevard line, which connected Los Angeles to Hollywood and on to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, had an average speed of 13 miles per hour (21 km/h) Traffic congestion

2436-482: The Los Angeles and Pacific Railway. Moses Sherman, Harry Chandler , Hobart Johnstone Whitley , and others bought the entire southern San Fernando Valley in 1910. The electric railway and a $ 500,000 boulevard called Sherman Way connected the three townsites they were selling. These included Van Nuys , Marion (now Reseda ), and Owensmouth (now Canoga Park ). Parts of Sherman Way are now called Chandler Boulevard and Van Nuys Boulevard . The railway company "connected all

2520-465: The Motor Transit Company, which operated intercity bus service within Southern California. In the pre-automobile era, electric interurban rail was the most economical way to connect outlying suburban and exurban parcels to central cities. Although the railway owned extensive private roadbeds, usually between urban areas, much PE trackage in urban areas such as downtown Los Angeles west of

2604-556: The Newport and Santa Ana lines were completed. In 1906, the Newport line was extended to Balboa, and in late 1906, lines to Sierra Madre and Oak Knoll in Pasadena were finished. The two firms controlled 449 miles (723 km) of track, with the Pacific Electric at 197 miles (317 km) and the LAIU, 252 miles (406 km). Huntington purchased the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway in July 1905, along with

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2688-596: The Northern District interurban lines to Pasadena, Monrovia/Glendora, and Baldwin Park versus the alternative of converting to buses, and found in favor of the latter. Remaining PE passenger service was sold off in 1953 to Metropolitan Coach Lines, which was given two years of rent-free usage of rail facilities. Jesse Haugh, of Metropolitan Coach Lines, was a former executive of Pacific City Lines which together with National City Lines acquired local streetcar systems across

2772-457: The Northern District's Pasadena's Oak Knoll line, and the Sierra Madre line. The Western District's last line to Venice and Santa Monica also ended. The Pasadena and Monrovia/Glendora lines ended in 1951. The various public agencies—city, county, and state—agreed with PE that further abandoning service was necessary and PE happily complied. PE management had earlier compared costs of refurbishing

2856-642: The PE. Large-scale land acquisition for new freeway construction began in earnest in 1951. The original four freeways of the area, the Hollywood , Arroyo Seco (formerly Pasadena) , Harbor , and San Bernardino , were in use or being completed. Partial completion of the San Bernardino Freeway to Aliso Street near downtown Los Angeles led to traffic chaos when inbound automobiles left the freeway and entered city streets. The Southern District's passenger service to Santa Ana and Baldwin Park ended in 1950 as did

2940-570: The President of the Nevada Bank, San Francisco's largest, became one of the largest bond holders for these lines and he and the younger Huntington developed a close business relationship. The success of their San Francisco trolley adventure and Hellman's experience in financing some early Los Angeles trolley lines led them to invest in the purchase of some existing downtown Los Angeles lines which they began to standardize and organize into one network called

3024-630: The Redondo Land Company, which owned 90% of the land in the beach community. This announcement precipitated a land boom in the area which resulted in a quick return of Huntington's entire investment in the area and in the railway. On March 19, 1906, an agreement was reached to sell control of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad lines, owned by Moses Sherman and Eli P. Clark , for a reported $ 6 million to Harriman (equivalent to $ 203 million in 2023); this turned over all

3108-563: The bond market meant that he had to turn to stockholders to finance expansion. In 1904 he acquired and finished the Los Angeles and Glendale Railway. In June, LAIU assumed control of the Riverside and Arlington Railway and the Santa Ana and Orange Motor Railway, and soon after, PE and LAIU finished their extension to Huntington Beach and began building a line to Covina . Huntington continued to expand and not declare profits. On December 7, 1904,

3192-516: The center margin of each freeway but the plan was never implemented. There was one exception that was within the Hollywood Freeway through Cahuenga Pass. The San Fernando Valley line from Hollywood took to the center of the Freeway over the pass and exited at Lankershim Boulevard. When that service was terminated, the freeway was expanded onto the former PE roadbed. The Whittier & Fullerton line

3276-463: The controlling majority of stock (double that of Huntington's) and the newspapers of the time referred to it as the Huntington-Hellman syndicate. Using surrogates, the syndicate began purchasing property and rights-of-way. The company's first main project, the line to Long Beach , opened July 4, 1902. Huntington experienced periods of opposition from organized labor with the construction of

3360-714: The country with the intention of shutting them down and converting them to bus operation in what became known as the Great American Streetcar Scandal . Several lines operating to the north and the west which used the Belmont Tunnel from the Subway Terminal Building downtown ceased operation – the Hollywood Boulevard and Beverly Hills lines were shut down in 1954 and service to the San Fernando Valley, Burbank and Glendale using newly acquired PCC streetcars lasted only to 1955. The Bellflower line to

3444-786: The dots on the map and was a leading player itself in developing all the real estate that lay in between the dots". Huntington's involvement with urban rail was intimately tied to his real estate development operations. Real estate development was so lucrative for Huntington and SP that they could use the Red Car as a loss leader . However, by 1920, when most of the company's holdings had been developed, their major income source began to deplete. Many rural passenger lines were unprofitable, with losses offset by revenue generated from passenger lines in populated corridors and from freight operations. The least-used Red Car lines were converted to cheaper bus routes as early as 1925. In 1936, Pacific Electric acquired

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3528-470: The end of rail service in 1963. Large profits from land development were generated along the routes of the new lines. Huntington Beach was incorporated in 1909 and developed by the Huntington Beach Company, a real-estate development firm owned by Henry Huntington, which still owns both land in the city and most of the mineral rights. There are other local streetcar suburbs . Angelino Heights

3612-403: The enterprise. Revenue from passenger traffic rarely generated a profit, unlike freight. The real money for the investors was in supplying electric power to new communities and in developing and selling real estate. To get the railways and electricity to their towns, local groups offered the Huntington interest opportunities in local land. Soon Huntington and his partners had significant holdings in

3696-473: The few U.S. interurbans to do so. This provided important revenue. The PE was responsible for an innovation in grade crossing safety: the automatic electromechanical grade crossing signal, nicknamed the wigwag . This device was quickly adopted by other railroads. A few wigwags continue in operation as of 2006 . During this period, the Los Angeles Railway provided local streetcar service in central Los Angeles and to nearby communities. These trolleys were known as

3780-551: The final few miles from private right-of-way to reach the 6th and Main PE terminal and were bogged down within this jammed traffic. Schedules could not be met, plus former patrons were now driving. The San Bernardino line, Pomona branch, Temple City branch via Alhambra's Main Street, San Bernardino's Mountain View local to 34th Street, Santa Monica Boulevard via Beverly Hills, and all remaining Pasadena local services were all cut in 1941. Permission

3864-546: The ground floor, and business offices on the upper floors. The station was built in unfinished concrete and fitted with art deco lamps. The mezzanine's waiting room was trimmed in terra cotta tiles and hosted at least one soda fountain and a newspaper stand. On the ground floor, to the back where passages went down to the mezzanine level, columns and recessed ceilings were finished in Italianate styled terra cotta, and front lobbies boasted marble floors and columns, and skylights, in

3948-416: The historical setting of Metro 417. The developers of Metro 417 have exposed the natural stone exterior, stripping off layers of paint. They restored the lobbies to their original showcase conditions in marble and brass and have curated the historic terra cotta trim of the intermediate spaces. The passenger ramps to the train station underground have been dismantled; the station itself has been shut off from

4032-418: The land companies developing Naples , Bay City (Seal Beach) , Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Redondo Beach. Harriman, who controlled the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad , was concerned with the competition that these new electric lines gave his steam railroad traffic, and had been prodding Huntington for joint ownership of the lines but Huntington refused to negotiate. In early 1903, Harriman proposed

4116-478: The lines in downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica and down the coast to Redondo Beach to the Southern Pacific. In January 1907, the Hellman syndicate, after seeing that Huntington ran the Los Angeles Railway similarly to PE, continually expanding and not declaring dividends, sold their 45% stake in the Los Angeles Railway to Harriman and the Southern Pacific. The Covina line was completed in 1907, as well as

4200-514: The most heavily congested areas in the United States. At its peak, this tunnel hosted 880 Red Cars per day, and served upwards of 20 million passengers a year. The tunnel's northwest entrance, the shed of what was formerly an electric substation, and the site of the former yard, are just downhill from 299 South Toluca Street, in Westlake . Together they form a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument ,

4284-502: The mountains to the sea." The Pacific Electric Railway was created in 1901 by railroad executive Henry E. Huntington and banker Isaias W. Hellman . As a Vice President of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), operated by his uncle, Collis P. Huntington , Huntington had a background in electric trolley lines in San Francisco where he oversaw SP's effort to consolidate many smaller street railroads into one organized network. Hellman,

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4368-404: The neglected property became a popular venue for graffiti. In 2002, the land used for the substation and train yard was sold to West Los Angeles-based Meta Housing Corporation, who agreed to clean and preserve the substation building and the tunnel portal. On the old train yard property Meta built the Belmont Station Apartments, which blocks the tunnel portal. The portal was sealed and painted with

4452-406: The new railways. Tensions between union leaders and like-minded Los Angeles businessmen were high from the early 1900s up through the 1920s. Strikes and boycotts troubled the Pacific Electric throughout those years until they reached the height of violence in the 1919 Streetcar Strike of Los Angeles . The efforts of organized labor simmered with the onset of World War I . Railroads were one part of

4536-417: The north and west of the region—the “Hollywood Subway”—as the project came to be known, were drafted as early as February 1924, and ground was broken in May of the same year. After eighteen months of building and $ 1.25 million spent ($ 21.7 million adjusted for inflation), the Subway Terminal opened to the public on December 1, 1925. The Belmont Tunnel, under Bunker and Crown hills, led from

4620-441: The other electric train terminal and headquarters, the Pacific Electric Building , from the south and east of Southern California. Thirty-one feet below Hill Street, the Subway Terminal underground enclosed six platforms, the tower where engineers fetched their schedules, and overhead electric cables that powered the trains. The station lay underneath a waiting room and concessions in a mezzanine level, ticketing and retail shops on

4704-467: The other hub, and headquarters, the Pacific Electric Building . The Subway soon became Los Angeles's most heavily used shortcut. Faster than the automobile and at 6¢ per ride (equivalent to $ 1.04 in 2023), electric trains carried thousands of travelers each day through it in the 1920s and 1930s. Ridership through the Subway reached its peak during the Second World War: in 1944, 880 trains per day used

4788-417: The parent corporation, Southern Pacific Railroad , sold Pacific Electric Railway to a subsidiary of General Motors, trains were replaced with motor buses; Pacific Electric service from the Subway was shut down in 1955. The last electric train to carry passengers, adorned with a banner reading To Oblivion, left the Belmont Tunnel on the morning of June 19, 1955. Shortly thereafter, Southern Pacific lifted

4872-462: The poor earnings of the interurban system, with profits of $ 151,000 in 1905 rising to $ 402,000 in 1907 (equivalent to $ 5.12 million and $ 13.1 million in 2023). However, in 1909, earnings were only $ 75,000. Huntington had begun long negotiations with Harriman about consolidating the Los Angeles electric railways beginning in 1907. There had always been a difference between the two men as to

4956-422: The popularity and utility of the system in an extended sequence in his 1924 film Girl Shy , where, after finding one Red Car too crowded, he commandeered another and drove at high speed through the streets of Culver City and Los Angeles. In response to a proposal to establish the first bus company in Los Angeles by William Gibbs McAdoo , Pacific Electric and the Los Angeles Railway proposed their own system,

5040-520: The proposed "Hollywood Subway" were drafted as early as February 1924, and ground was broken in May of the same year. After eighteen months of construction and US$ 1.25 million (equivalent to US$ 21.7 million in 2023), the Subway officially opened to the public on December 1, 1925. Over about one mile of track, the Subway linked trains heading towards the intersection of Beverly and Glendale Boulevards in Westlake with Los Angeles's newest train station and second electric rail hub, which lay underneath

5124-485: The purpose of the railway, with Huntington seeing the PE as a means to facilitate his real estate efforts, and Harriman seeing it as part of the Southern Pacific's overall transportation system in Southern California . Harriman left Huntington alone until 1910, when the former refused to allow the latter to run a line to San Diego that would have interfered with a competitive arrangement Harriman had worked out with

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5208-492: The region attracting millions of workers. There were several years when the company's income statement showed a profit when gasoline and rubber were rationed and much of the populace depended on mass transit. At peak operation toward the end of the war, the PE dispatched over 10,000 trains daily and was a major employer in Southern California. However, the equipment in use was old and suffered from deferred maintenance. The nation's last interurban Railroad post office (RPO) service

5292-602: The remaining 20%. Huntington could expand the PE as he saw fit, but he was not to compete with existing SP lines. A byproduct of this sale was that Harriman sold the banking unit of his Wells Fargo Company to Hellman who merged it with his Nevada Bank operations and established the Pacific Coast's largest, most powerful bank. On June 6, 1903, Huntington created the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway, capitalized at $ 10 million (equivalent to $ 339 million in 2023), with plans to extend lines to Santa Ana , Newport Beach ,

5376-485: The secret winner. In May 1903, Huntington made an overnight trip to San Francisco and worked out an arrangement with Harriman. The Pacific Electric would get the Los Angeles Traction Lines, SP's San Gabriel Valley Rapid Transit Railway line, the 6th Street franchise, and some downtown trackage. In return, Harriman got 40.3% of PE stock, an amount equal to Huntington's, with Hellman, Borel and De Guigne owning

5460-481: The south closed in 1958 as the Golden State/Santa Ana (Interstate 5) neared completion. The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority was established in 1951 to study the possibility of establishing a publicly owned monorail line running north from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles and then west to Panorama City in the San Fernando Valley. In 1954, the agency's powers were expanded to allow it to propose

5544-556: The station onto the Toluca Electric Substation and Yard at the Beverley viaduct over Glendale Boulevard, near Westlake and Echo Park. It channeled trains through Westlake to all over Hollywood, Westwood, Santa Monica, North Hollywood, Glendale, Burbank, West Hills, and San Fernando. It cut off seven miles (11 km) or more off similar journeys on rails running along Alameda Street and Exposition Boulevard, which led trains to

5628-545: The tracks from the yard and tunnel, shut up the Subway Terminal, disconnected the Toluca Electric Substation, and abandoned the properties. The upper floors of the Subway Terminal remained as an office building for many years. The tunnel below remained unbreached along its whole length until December 1967, when part of the tunnel under Flower Street was filled in. In 1974, a piling for the Bonaventure Hotel

5712-612: The tunnel is blocked by a wall, and a corner of the old terminal area is separated from the Pershing Square station by a wall. The Hollywood Subway and electric substation are used in a large number of TV shows, films, and other creative genres: Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company , nicknamed the Red Cars , was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars , interurban cars, and buses and

5796-414: The tunnel, serving an estimated 65,000 passengers daily, reckoning out to more than 20 million riders a year. After the parent corporation, Southern Pacific Railroad , sold Pacific Electric Railway to a subsidiary of General Motors , trains were replaced with motor buses; Pacific Electric was shut down in 1955. The last electric train to carry passengers — adorned with a banner reading, To Oblivion, left

5880-419: The west. The two stations, together forming the shape of a ‘T’, are separated by the eastern wall of the old station. In 2007, the Subway Terminal Building, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #177, was renovated into Metro 417, a luxury apartment building owned by Forest City and built by Swinerton Builders. Concerns were raised for the historic Florentine exterior when a 76-story skyscraper, Park Fifth ,

5964-454: The world, with 2,160 daily trains over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of track. It operated to many destinations in Southern California, particularly to the south and east. The Southern Pacific now began to emphasize freight operations. From 1911, when revenue from freight was $ 519,226 ($ 17 million adjusted for inflation), freight revenue climbed to $ 1,203,956 in 1915 (equivalent to $ 36.3 million in 2023), 13% of total revenue. During

6048-453: Was blocked off by the foundation of one of the skyscrapers on Bunker Hill , creating two separated sections of the original tunnel. Later, in 1974 a piling of the Bonaventure Hotel was driven through the middle portion of the tunnel. Even after the change, the tunnels sections remained a popular location for film and television shoots. Over the next 35 years, few changes were made to the tunnel, electric substation, or train yard property, and

6132-640: Was built around the Temple Street horsecar, which was later upgraded to electric streetcar as part of the Yellow Car system. Highland Park was developed along the Figueroa Street trolley lines and railroads linking downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena. Huntington owned nearly all the stock in the Pacific Electric Land Company. West Hollywood was established by Moses Sherman and his partners of

6216-454: Was built through the spot. The tunnel could be spied from the bottom level of the hotel's parking garage, which became an entrance into the eastern half of the tunnel for daring graffiti artists. When the Metro B (formerly Red) Line was built underground, the Pershing Square station , running north and south under Hill Street, was built at the east end of the old train station, whose tracks ran to

6300-512: Was cut in 1938, Redondo Beach, Newport Beach, Sawtelle via San Vicente, and Riverside in 1940. When the San Bernardino Freeway opened in 1941 but was not yet connected to the Hollywood Freeway, while the "Four Way" overpass was being constructed, westbound car traffic from the SB freeway poured onto downtown streets near the present Union Station. PE's multiple car trains coming and going from Pasadena, Sierra Madre, and Monrovia/Glendora used those same streets

6384-493: Was established as Hill Street Station, the downtown terminus of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad . Pacific Electric acquired the property along with the railroad's other assets in the Great Merger of 1911, which saw the consolidation of most of the area's local railways. As street traffic grew in downtown Los Angeles, the Pacific Electric Railway undertook its most ambitious project, a dedicated right of way into downtown through

6468-606: Was initially proposed on the former site of the Philharmonic Auditorium behind the building. In 2014, the new owner, San Francisco real estate investment firm MacFarlane Partners, announced that the Park Fifth development was going ahead with 650 units in a high-rise apartment building instead. In 2020, an outdoor paseo (path) was built between the new complex and the Metro 417 apartments with tables, chairs, and lighting, preserving

6552-593: Was later utilized when the Southern California RTD was designing and building the Metro Blue Line light rail line. The Blue Line, the first modern mass transit line in Los Angeles since the discontinuation of the Red Car service, was first opened in 1990. The few remaining trolley-coach routes and narrow gauge streetcar routes of the former Los Angeles Railway "Yellow Cars" were removed in early 1963. The public transportation system continued to be operated by

6636-459: Was of such great concern by the late 1930s that the influential Automobile Club of Southern California engineered an elaborate plan to create an elevated freeway-type Motorway System, a key aspect of which was the dismantling of the streetcar lines, replacing them with buses that could run on both local streets and on the new express roads. When the freeway system was planned in the 1930s the city planners planned to include interurban tracks in

6720-412: Was operated by PE on its San Bernardino Line. This was inaugurated comparatively late, on September 2, 1947. It left LA's new Union Station interurban yard on the west side of the terminal, turned north onto Alameda Street at 12:45 pm and reached San Bernardino at 4:40 pm, taking three hours for the trip while making postal stops en route as required. It did not operate on Sundays or holidays. This last RPO

6804-402: Was pulled off May 6, 1950. Aware that most new arrivals planned to stay in the region after the war, local municipal governments, Los Angeles County and the state agreed that a massive infrastructure improvement program was necessary. At that time politicians agreed to construct a web of freeways across the region. This was seen as a better solution than a new mass transit system or an upgrade of

6888-674: Was received in September 1942 to abandon the shuttle line to General Hospital which company officials said had been operating at a loss for several months. The Glendale line survived to the early 1950s due to the convenience of a subway into downtown Los Angeles and used the company's only modern equipment, a group of streamlined PCC cars. In 1940, Pacific Electric sold its Glendale , Burbank , and Pasadena operations to Pacific City Lines . San Bernardino operations were sold to San Bernardino Valley Transit. PE carried increased passenger loads during World War II, when Los Angeles County's population nearly doubled as war industries concentrated in

6972-544: Was the first installation of the final design of the Magnetic Watchman wigwag crossing signal and crossbucks. Oil tank cars were still shuttled to Signal Hill even as the surface street tracks were torn up from the center of Long Beach Boulevard long after the copper overhead catenary supply wires had been removed. Southern Pacific (now part of Union Pacific ) continues to operate freight service utilizing former PE right-of-way. Subway Terminal Building The site

7056-536: Was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino , it connected cities in Los Angeles County , Orange County , San Bernardino County and Riverside County . The system shared dual gauge track with the 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) narrow gauge Los Angeles Railway , "Yellow Car," or "LARy" system on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles (directly in front of

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