History
In 1901, Henry E. Huntington (nephew and heir to the fortune of Southern Pacific Railroad founder Collis P. Huntington) began the Pacific Electric Railway as a way to develop the lands surrounding Los Angeles. The main trunk line eastwards into the San Gabriel Valley passed to the south of Pasadena (with branch lines peeling off), skirting the line of hills just south of the San Gabriel Mountains. Huntington chose for himself a large tract of land on one of these hills (which on a clear day has a view of the ocean, 22 miles (35 km) distant). When automobile ownership rose in Southern California, this main line was converted into a wide divided highway, with four tracks running down the median. In 1925, Pacific Electric began converting its train lines into bus routes, a process that culminated in 1953, when the bulk of its routes were closed.
Read more about this topic: Huntington Drive
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I believe my ardour for invention springs from his loins. I can’t say that the brassiere will ever take as great a place in history as the steamboat, but I did invent it.”
—Caresse Crosby (1892–1970)
“They are a sort of post-house,where the Fates
Change horses, making history change its tune,
Then spur away o’er empires and o’er states,
Leaving at last not much besides chronology,
Excepting the post-obits of theology.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)