santa monica pier

Description

Tour of Santa Monica Pier, the official western end of historic Route 66 in Santa Monica, California, USA on Aug. 11, 2011. The Santa Monica Pier is a large double-jointed pier located at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California and is a prominent, 100-year-old landmark. The pier contains Pacific Park, a family amusement park with a large Ferris wheel. It also has a carousel from the 1920s, an aquarium, shops, entertainers, an arcade, a trapeze school, a pub and restaurants. The end of the pier is a popular location for anglers. The current Santa Monica Pier is actually two adjoining piers that long had separate owners. The long, narrow Municipal Pier opened Sept. 9, 1909. The short, wide adjoining Pleasure Pier to the south (previously called Newcomb Pier) was built in 1916 by amusement park pioneers Charles I. D. Looff and his son Arthur. The Carousel was built in 1922 on the Pleasure Pier and features 44 hand-carved horses. It was rebuilt in 1990 inside the Looff Hippodrome. A calliope provides musical accompaniment. Santa Monica Pier is the official western end of historic U.S. Highway Route 66. Route 66 is a roadway so famous, it had its own song "Get Your Kicks on Route 66." The original route stretched from Chicago to Los Angeles, and later, it was extended to Santa Monica. Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and Venice on the southeast. Santa Monica is home to executives and Hollywood celebrities amongst others and it is a mixture of affluent, single-family neighborhoods, renters, surfers, young professionals, and students. Santa Monica is named after Saint Monica of Hippo because the area in which the city is now located was first visited by Spaniards on her feast day.