L.A. only had smog after its urban railways, such as Huntington’s Red Line, were sold and abandoned, often to bus and car makers like General Motors. And as the Southwest filled in, most traffic went to neighboring cities and states, rather than out of the region. Short-run trucking grew. And more and more people poured in, for the climate, the jobs.

The final destination of Route 66, heading west, is Los Angeles, City of Possibilities. It certainly looked that way to Fray Juan Crespi, traveling North from Sonora, in New Spain. On August 1, 1769, he pronounced Los Angeles as having "all the requisites for a large settlement." The Spanish exploring party was warmly received; on a stretch near the later Route 66, Elysian Park, they received woven baskets and strings of shells, the local currency, according to the author of Los Angeles: El Pueblo Grande.

"We gave them a little tobacco and glass beads," Crespi wrote, "and they went away well pleased." The visit turned rougher when, as they crossed Route 66's path to the Wilshire district: they were stumped by tar pits and shaken by two days of temblors.

The earthquakes, as any kid from the neighboring village of Yangna might have informed them, were caused by "the restlessness of the seven giants whose shoulders supported the weight of the world."

In the beginning, Los Angeles was a shallow bay enjoyed by prehistoric snails, scallops, and crabs. Warm, green water lapped gently in the basin, until swept by earthquakes into cooler currents, where layers of shells made limestone and, eventually, oil.

From its founding in l781, Los Angeles was mostly Hispanic and African-American--its first black mayor was in l793. After the Santa Fe line arrived in l887, the town’s population quintupled in a year. A dozen years later, the city’s chamber of commerce mailed out two million flyers advertising the city’s climate and fresh air. By l930, the city had mushroomed to 1,238,000 people. By 2001, this is the country’s second-largest city, numbering 15 million. 

When Route 66 reached L.A., the area offered sun and ocean. Fortunately, that was enough to snare two emergent industries which depended on clear days, year-round: aeronautics and motion pictures. The clarity of the sea-washed air brought the Douglass and Lockheed companies to test and manufacture planes; air traffic in California was booming. During and after World War II, the plants worked round-the-clock with air force and army personnel.

With the addition of rich oil deposits--in 1926, the city pumped a fifth of the America’s oil--today’s megalopolis took shape. The film industry begat the music and television industries; and aeronautics begat the electronics and defense-related industries.

Around the world, a quaint suburb originally called Hollywoodland became synonymous with moving pictures. From l910-l960, it produced three-fourths of America’s films and two-thirds of the world’s films.