L.A. From the Air, 1961

[Music] The Los Angeles metropolitan area is constantly growing and changing. To the northeast, the city pushes up against the mountains in Pasadena and [Music] Glendale. It spreads north into the San Fernando Valley. The central district is full of new buildings. The Hollywood and Wilshire districts, once far from downtown, now are part of a which spreads past Beverly Hills and out to the ocean. But why is all this going on in Los Angeles? Why is Los Angeles an exploding city? more than Chicago or London or New York or anywhere. Understanding why is easier when you look at the city from the air. You can see the geography of the growth and also some important reasons behind it. We'll discover the geography and the reasons as we go along. Now, here's the flight plan. The city lies on a low semi- desert plane surrounded by mountains to the north and east and ocean to the west and south. The northern mountains open out around the San Fernando Valley. The Los Angeles River cuts through the valley and south to the ocean. This variety of mountain, valley, river, and ocean is one of the reasons for this area's growth. The river is our starting place as it was the starting place of Los Angeles. We will fly over the plaza, civic center, downtown, and the Wilshire and southeastern industrial districts. Later, we will widen the circle to the suburbs. The Spanish founded Los Angeles by the river. Good farmland and plenty of water. In fact, the Los Angeles River still supplies daily water for a half million people. Where's the water? Mainly underground. Close by the river and railroad terminal is the original center of town. The old plaza marked today by a small park. If you could have flown over the plaza in 1847, you would have seen this. still a sleepy town. By the 1860s, the plaza contained the city's first reservoir filled with river water. When we fly over old Los Angeles today, we discover it has become the heart of New Los Angeles. Right next to the freeway and the city board of education is a monument to the pioneer settlers. The oldest part of the city contains the newest civic structures. These are Los Angeles County buildings. The civic center is filled with government buildings. There are federal, state, city buildings. The city hall is still the tallest building in the city, 454 ft. From this original center, Los Angeles grew slowly southwest. On the outskirts of town, there was a public camping ground and cow pasture which was made into the first city park. Much later, the park would get a new name. Persing Square. Persing Square today looks very little like a cow pasture. Downtown is an exciting place now. New stores and offices, new hotels. On the building tops are huge air conditioning and heating units. But all the new buildings were quite unexpected a few years ago. Los Angeles was growing everywhere except downtown. It was the forgotten area. Many people are still surprised by the growth downtown. How do you explain it? Los Angeles began with a perfectly square Spanish land grant. Downtown developed here. But when this whole area boomed, the city suddenly leaped outward, annexing the harbor, the San Fernando Valley, and moving west. It spread so far, transportation was slow. Downtown was neglected. It was just too far away. But then came the freeways. Now it became possible to come downtown in a few minutes from Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach, and other places. The spread out community rediscovered its center. Today, the freeways move thousands of people daily, and they are planned years ahead. Some sections which seem to start nowhere and go nowhere actually are parts of uncompleted future freeways. But the freeways cannot be built fast enough to keep up with the growing crowds of cars, buses, and trucks. Los Angeles has more cars than any city in the world. Every day the freeways are jammed. New solutions must be found to transportation in Los Angeles and our other traffic clogged big cities. Another key problem is water. There may be 25 million people here in about 50 years. They'll need a lot more water. Over 50 years ago, the water department prepared for the present population. In 1908, they built the Owens River Aqueduct to bring water from hundreds of miles away. Now, Los Angeles is looking ahead 50 years and preparing more new sources of water. Planning for growth made possible apartment projects such as these in the Wilshire area. These tall buildings looked unusual in Los Angeles at first, but now it's clear the city is growing up into the air as well as out onto new land. And the future will include whole planned communities. The Wilshire Miracle Mile was the first big shopping area away from downtown. Wilshire now is a new financial district of insurance and office buildings. East and south of downtown in such communities as Vernon and Southgate is the original industrial district near the river and railroad lines. Now you can see the pattern of the heart of Los Angeles. The old plaza, the civic center and downtown in the center with a financial and shopping development to the west and the industrial district to the south and east. This is the hub around which this whole area revolves. The community also provides a great variety of services. Hospital care, education, parks, indoor stadiums, outdoor stadiums and golf courses. But the growth of the central district is limited. Looking across Beverly Hills toward central Los Angeles, we can see nothing but streets and blocks. Only in the hills is space left for new homes. In its search for new land, the city has spread across the mountains into the San Fernando Valley. It spread in all directions to new suburban areas. Let's see how the suburbs relate to the central district geographically and why they are so important to city growth. The central district is surrounded by such suburbs as Pasadena, Vanise, Santa Monica, Compton, and Orange. All these communities depend on each other. They are all growing together as the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The freeways help link them together. When it's complete, the freeway system will form a network connecting the center and the suburbs. The suburbs show all the basic elements of growth. Homes are built in giant tracts which spread across the valleys and up the hillsides. Some people live with a pool in the backyard. Some live with the ocean for a front yard. Some like to live in trailers. But most still live in city blocks like these in Santa Monica. To serve the people of the suburbs, vast shopping centers have been built like this in Panorama City. They are usually grouped around big department stores. The suburbs offer many varieties of fun making. This giant ocean aquariums thousands of visitors. The mountains and deserts offer special attractions, too. The suburbs also show the wide economic variety which is vital to any metropolis. Los Angeles is one of the top five agricultural counties in the United States. Most of the agriculture is in the valleys and Orange County. These giant farms are run like factories. They are mechanized and cultivated the year round. Their products go all over the world. Much of Los Angeles's wealth comes from oil fields and refineries in the southern areas such as Wilmington and Long Beach. In manufacturing, this area ranks just behind Chicago and New York. Most important are the defense plants such as electronics and aircraft. Supporting this varied economy is the largest man-made harbor in the Western Hemisphere. 75 years ago, there was nothing at the harbor but mud flats and some primitive docks. But then huge rocks were brought to build a breakwater and giant dredges opened channels for large ships. Now, Los Angeles is the number one port on the Pacific coast. There is a giant fishing and canning industry. Thousands of tons of cargo move daily to the southwest United States. Much of the cargo is handled by special equipment such as this giant floating crane, the world's largest. At night, we can see the flashing proof of growth. And perhaps now we can understand the main reasons behind it. In Los Angeles, you can work on a farm or a fishing boat or in a factory. You can live in the mountains, valleys, or by the beaches. You can go to the observatory or the coliseum. It is all these different opportunities put together which make Los Angeles the fastest growing metropolis in the world.