Santa Monica Pier

The Santa Monica Pier is one of the largest attractions and the landmarks of the Californian city of Santa Monica. It starts from the Colorado Avenue and extends over the Santa Monica State Beach ( public beach) in the Pacific Ocean. At the same time it forms the end point of the famous Route 66

History

The Santa Monica Pier is composed of two joined Piers, which included two different owners for a long time. The long, narrow Municipal Pier opened on 9 September 1909 primarily for the purpose of drainage pipes to lead behind the surf. The short but wider Pleasure Pier ( also Newcomb Pier) was built in 1916 by Charles Looff and his son Arthur Looff at the south end; both are considered pioneers for the construction of amusement parks.

1924 opened the La Monica Ballroom dance hall, but was forced to close in 1959 again. The bridge connection to the pier was built in 1938 by the State Works Progress Administration.

The Newcomb Pier was acquired in 1953 by the city and survived various demolition plans in the 1960s. The most unusual plan called for the construction of an artificial island for a hotel with 1500 rooms. The city council approved the project, but had it by an overwhelming citizens' initiative called "Save the Santa Monica Bay " (Eng.: Save the Santa Monica Bay ) in 1973 back up. In the same year the old carousel became a central location of the magnificent seven Oscars movie The Sting ( although the film plays in Chicago ).

Due to its proximity to the film studios of Hollywood and the popularity among the population of numerous television and film productions have been filmed here since the 1930s.

Leisure time

The Pier is home to the Pacific Park amusement park in which one of a ferris wheel has a wide view of the Pacific and West Los Angeles. The park also includes a carousel from the 1920s, an aquarium and a variety of shops, junk shops, bars and restaurants. Pacific Park dates from the years 1958 to 1967 and was restored in 1974. The carousel was built in 1922 and situated on the Pleasure Pier. It has 44 hand-carved horses and is accompanied by music. 1990, it was restored and re-erected.

At the far end of the pier can be found every day, many fishermen together and go after their hobby. In addition, several summer festivals, dance events and open-air film screenings take place.

Others

The German Film Park Movie Park Germany in 2007 opened a new thematic area of the Santa Monica Pier has as a role model.

The future and the eventual collapse of the pier after a fictitious disappearance of humanity is shown in episode 7 of the second season of the docu-fiction series Life After People ( " waves of death", USA 2010).