Los Angeles’ Forgotten Hollywood Subway

When you think of Los Angeles, the first thing that comes to mind has to be the movie stars and the glamour. Like one of the gems that keep reappearing in those Hollywood movies, Los Angeles has a darker side – it's terrible traffic.

Traffic in LA has been terrible even a century ago, which prompted railway magnate E.H. Harriman to hatch a plan to bring the underground railways system to Los Angeles in 1907. It wasn't until LA's dependency on cars balooned 15 years later that the construction plants were finally in place.

It was supposed to be crown jewel to the city's already existing Pacific Electric Railway, considered to be one of the country's leading public transit systems. It was only the second electric-powered subway, after New York City. It took commuters mere 15 to 20 minutes to cross the city for mere 6 cents.

Then, 30 years later, “evil” enterprises come in, destroy all public mass-transit and start building freeways up and down Los Angeles, so that citizens may drive their cars, again. National City Lines, financed by General Motors, The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and Philips Petroleum bought PER and dismantled everything associated with it, ALLEGEDLY so that LA's commuters would again be forced to rely on the gas-powered GM buses and car in general.

The Belmont Tunnel was closed off and the Subway Terminal Building, which could service up to 50.000 commuters in it's prime days, was turned into condos.