Tuesday, August 25, 2009

1954: Red Car Stop at Monte Sano

Photo: Clarence Inman Collection, 1954. The Ivanhoe Substation marks the Red Car Trolley Stop at Monte Sano Hospital. (Click on photo to enlarge with street names & landmarks.)

Monte Sano was the last trolley stop on the Silver Lake side of the LA River, before the Pacific Electric Glendale Line headed into Atwater, en route to Glendale from Downtown Los Angeles.

If you enlarge the photo above, the Ivanhoe Substation is on the Riverside Drive side of Monte Sano Hospital. The substation supplied electric power to the Pacific Electric trains. According to the Electric Railway Historical Association, the larger structure was built in 1930, adjacent to the original brick structure from 1904.

Riverside Drive appears to be a 6-lane highway. Today, it's down to 4 lanes with the 5 Freeway between the LA River and Riverside Drive.

From Monte Sano, the tracks crossed Riverside Drive (at Glendale Blvd.) and the LA River. In 1904, like the Fletcher Viaduct, the bridge was all-wooden trestle. It was prone to washouts. Like the Fletcher Viaduct, in 1928, the bridge was rebuilt in three sections with steel to accommodate the paving of Riverside Drive.