Santa Monica California — Retro Vintage History

What's with Santa Monica? Santa Monica is where America's road runs out — the beach city at the end of Route 66, wrapped around a wooden amusement pier over the Pacific. It is the Westside's front porch: bluffs and palms above a wide state beach, the Ferris wheel turning on sunlight, and the sign every road-tripper drives two thousand miles to photograph.

Where you're from. Where you love. Where you explored. Where you belong.

Long before the road or the pier, this stretch of coast was home to the Tongva — the Gabrielino people — who lived along Santa Monica Bay for centuries, fishing its waters and trading along the shore. A Spanish expedition under Portolá camped nearby in 1769 and left the name of a saint on the place; through the Mexican era the land lay in ranchos, and Tongva Park downtown now carries the first people's name at the center of the city.

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 waterfront made the city famous. A string of amusement piers rose along the bay in the resort decades, and of them all, the 1909 Santa Monica Pier is the one that survived — the municipal pier and its pleasure-pier twin, carrying the 1916 Looff Hippodrome, a National Historic Landmark whose hand-carved carousel horses still circle under the old dome. Pacific Park's rides came later; the wooden deck, the anglers at the rail, and the long walk over the water are the originals.

Then the century's greatest road arrived. Route 66 was commissioned in 1926, carrying the country west from Chicago through eight states — and in 1936 the route was extended to Santa Monica, bringing America's Main Street to the edge of the continent. Dust Bowl migrants, GIs, vacationing families in station wagons: for decades the road delivered the nation to this beach, and the "End of the Trail" sign on the pier now marks the ceremonial finish line of the most famous drive on Earth — the official historic terminus sits a few blocks inland at Lincoln and Olympic, a fine piece of trivia for the road-trippers who made it all the way.

What's with the Ferris wheel that runs on sunlight? Out at the end of the Santa Monica Pier, the big wheel turns on solar power — a small, very Californian touch on a wooden pier that has stood over the Pacific since 1909. The pier is the city's signature: the last of the north bay's old amusement piers, with a 1922 carousel still spinning under its hippodrome roof and a neon sign at the foot of it that reads 'End of the Trail.' That sign means something specific. Santa Monica is where Route 66 stops — 2,448 miles from Chicago, America's Main Street runs out of country here and meets the sea.

The sand wrote its own history. Just south of the pier in the 1930s, the original Muscle Beach opened — gymnasts, acrobats, and weightlifters working out in the open air, launching the physical-culture boom that reshaped American fitness before the scene migrated down the coast. And the beach itself — wide, state-run, and seemingly endless — became simply California's beach: the one the postcards, the songs, and the closing shots of a thousand films actually mean.

Santa Monica also helped teach the world to fly. In 1921 Donald Douglas founded Douglas Aircraft here, building planes in a converted movie studio; in 1924 the U.S. Army's Douglas World Cruisers lifted off from Clover Field — today's Santa Monica Airport — and returned 175 days later as the first flight around the world. The company grew into one of the giants of American aviation, and for a generation the DC-series airliners that shrank the planet were born a mile from 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.

Our Santa Monica logo carries the California Republic bear and star above "Est. 1850," the year of statehood — the shared retro emblem of our California places, drawn in a worn black-and-white that recalls a WPA poster or an old pier ticket. The bear links Santa Monica to every other California town we make; what makes this one Santa Monica is everything around it — the road's end, the wheel, the carousel, and the beach that stands for all beaches.

Today Santa Monica is California's beach and the end of America's road. Its story runs from the Tongva coast and the senator's 1875 resort, through the amusement-pier era, the birth of Douglas Aircraft, and the 1936 arrival of Route 66, to the solar wheel turning over the Pacific tonight. Wear a little of the place where the road runs out and the ocean begins.

Santa Monica, California — Travel Guide

Visiting Santa Monica Today

Santa Monica sits on Santa Monica Bay where the Westside of Los Angeles meets the Pacific — a compact, walkable beach city of pier, bluffs, and promenade, easy to reach from LA by the Expo Line or the 10. The 1909 pier and its Route 66 sign anchor the south end of the beach; the palm-lined bluffs of Palisades Park run north; and the sunsets are the ones the postcards promised. Weekday mornings own the beach; the Wednesday farmers market owns the town.

The Pier, the Promenade & the Beach

For visitors looking for things to do in Santa Monica, California:

• Walk the Santa Monica Pier end to end — the Looff carousel under the 1916 Hippodrome dome, Pacific Park's solar Ferris wheel, the anglers at the rail, and the End of the Trail sign for the road-trip photo.
• Spend a beach day on Santa Monica State Beach — miles of the sand that stands for California — with the original Muscle Beach rings and ropes just south of the pier.
• Stroll Palisades Park along the bluffs at sunset, past the Camera Obscura, with the whole bay below.
• Shop and people-watch the Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place, then browse Montana Avenue's quieter blocks.
• Ride the Marvin Braude Bike Trail along the sand — the beach path that runs for miles down the bay.
• Swim where the Gold Coast partied at the Annenberg Community Beach House, and catch the Wednesday farmers market downtown.

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.

Where you're from. Where you love. Where you explored. Where you belong.

Kindred Cities

Greetings, friends from Chicago — the city at the other end of the road.

Santa Monica's kindred city sits 2,448 miles away at the start of Route 66. Chicago's Adams Street sign says BEGIN; Santa Monica's pier sign says END OF THE TRAIL — and between them runs the most famous drive on Earth, eight states of diners, neon, and desert that both cities bookend. One city sends the travelers off with a deep-dish dinner; the other receives them with an ocean.

They could not be less alike — the big-shouldered lake city and the beach town on the bluffs — and that is exactly the point: Route 66 was built to connect the middle of America to its golden edge, and the two ends have been trading road-trippers for ninety years. Come and visit us soon — the wheel is lit, and the water's warmer on this end.

When you plan the trip, Santa Monica Travel & Tourism — the city's official visitor bureau — is the place to start.

Where you're from. Where you love. Where you explored. Where you belong.

For deeper reading on the Santa Monica history described here — the Tongva (Gabrielino) homeland, the 1769 Portolá camps and the Spanish naming, the Mexican-era Sepulveda rancho, the 1875 founding by Sen. John P. Jones and Col. Robert Baker and the donation of Palisades Park, the amusement-pier era and the 1909 Santa Monica Pier, the 1921 founding of Douglas Aircraft and the 1924 round-the-world flight from Clover Field, and the 1926 establishment of Route 66's western terminus — it may be useful to consult (1) the Santa Monica History Museum, (2) the Santa Monica Public Library's image and history archives, (3) the California State Library and State Archives, (4) the Gabrielino/Tongva cultural resources for Indigenous history, and (5) the National Park Service and Route 66 heritage organizations. For travel and visitor information, it may be useful to contact (1) the Santa Monica Travel & Tourism office, (2) the Santa Monica Pier organization, (3) the City of Santa Monica, (4) California State Parks, and (5) the regional transit and airport information desks.