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.
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.
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.
