Santa Monica as a town dates to 1875, when a Nevada silver senator, John P. Jones, and a ranching colonel, Robert Baker, laid it out as a seaside resort — a "Pearl of the Pacific" they hoped would become Los Angeles's great port. Jones built his railroad and his mile-long wharf, and for a time the port dream was real: Santa Monica served as the region's port of call into the early 1900s, until San Pedro took the harbor trade for good. The city incorporated in 1886 and kept the better inheritance — the beach.
The twentieth century layered on the rest: the 1920s "Gold Coast" of beach mansions brought the first Hollywood money to the sand; the palm-lined bluffs of Palisades Park became the city's grand balcony; the Third Street Promenade turned downtown into one of America's great walking streets; and the farmers market grew into a Wednesday institution that feeds half the restaurant kitchens in Los Angeles. Through it all the pier kept its promise — and in 1998 the Ferris wheel went solar, the first of its kind, so the wheel over the Pacific now runs on the same sunshine that built the town.
Why People Visit Santa Monica
Santa Monica rewards visitors with a rare mix — a historic amusement pier, the western end of Route 66, miles of state beach, and one of America's great walking downtowns, all on a bright Pacific bay. People come for the pier and the End of the Trail, and stay for the sunsets off the bluffs and the easy, salt-aired grace of California's beach city.
