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.
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.
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.
