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.
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.
