Pacific Electric Railway

Many thanks to www.erha.org for the info in this post.

San Pedro was recently awarded the USS Iowa and it is simultaneously being touted as the boon the Queen Mary has been to Long Beach, and the burden it has been to Long Beach. One of the side projects that has been discussed along with bringing in the ship is connecting it to the historic Red Line in San Pedro. San Pedro reopened some of their Red Line tracks in 2003, because, well, if it worked for San Francisco, it could work for San Pedro.

The execution is similar to SF. While SF's historic streetcars go up Market from it's genesis in the Castro up to the hotels downtown and out to the wharf, San Pedro goes from the Cruise Center to downtown, Ports of Call, and the Marina. It's just a 1.5 mile trek, designed to take those who just came in from or are about to go out on cruises to some of San Pedro's hot spots.

Of course, the original Red Line was much more extensive. We've got a map to prove it!

You can see the San Pedro terminal on the map, and the extension of the track that currently carries the historic Red Cars that you can ride today! I'm going to assume that little jaunt along what's called Wilmington Road on the map is the line Banning built. The Red Line was founded by oil man and real estate tycoon Henry Huntington of Huntington Beach and the Huntington Library. 

I've always been told that the Long Beach - Los Angeles line was the first of the Red Lines. And, the current metro Blue Line follows many of the same rails, the elevated parts excluded, of course.  It was at least the first conceived and executed by Huntington, I guess the Pasadena lines were partly found art. 

Look at this photo: 

please don't super sue me Metro Transportation Library and Archive

That's what was then known as American Avenue, which is where the Long Beach line heads south toward the water through downtown Long Beach. The photo is from 1955, after buses replaced the rails on American Avenue. Then in 1959 they changed AA to Long Beach Blvd. And of course, later they reopened the Blue Line on LBB, using the old rails.

I do love an old kodachrome photograph. Anyhow, up past Long Beach, the train went through Dominguez, Compton, and Watts (as it still does today). Anyhow, take a look at the map, and see what details stand out to you.