Pacific Electric Railway Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

happycrazyrobot!: I've moved from the area so will archive local caches as they go down. Not to worry, my caches won't go away but merely be relocated as I'll be creating new ones in my new hood of Westchester.

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Hidden : 3/3/2013
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

I've always been fascinated by historical transportation artifacts.  One particular topic I love is old railways.

In the first half of the century, west Los Angeles and the southbay had a network of lite rail called the Pacific Electric Railway. Anyone familiar with the greenbelt that runs from the intersection of PCH and Rosecrans in Manhattan Beach, south to Herondo Street at the southern edge of Hermosa Beach, most probably knows that at one time it was a railway. There is a portion of the Frys overflow parking lot where the rails are still visible. 

As you travel from there to the north on Lincoln Blvd, there is a much less noticed remnant of a line which ran from parts of Los Angeles to a resort spot called Port Ballona, which is now Playa del Rey. You may have passed it a thousand times and never noticed. Adjacent to the Culver Blvd. overpass that crosses Lincoln are two bridge abutments. The span over PCH is long gone, but the abutments survive to this day. This was the bridge which carried the Pacific Line to the beach.

Just a little over half a mile north, you will drive over rails which, surprisingly for so many years, are still exposed, embedded in the roadway just south of the start of the 90 freeway. If you bicycle the Ballona Creek bicycle path, you can still see the piers which supported a bridge that crossed Ballona Creek. There is also a large right-of-way that runs parallel to the 90 from Ballona Creek to Lincoln that marks the path of the now defunct railroad.

And all of this brings us to GZ for this cache. My curiosity was piqued when I notice this bridge which was obviously designed to carry a heavy load, and it is only used as a connection between two segments of a parking lot. I discovered that this was originally a rail bridge for the Pacific Electric Railway's Venice Short Line. My cache to the east, Venice of America, is located adjacent to a small park with rails built into the paths which represent where the Venice Short Line once ran. So I decided to place a run-of-the-mill Altoids tin at a spot that I'm fascinated by, and I hope you are too!

Metal clapboard key chain for FTF.

Congrats to VIRGE for being the FTF!

There are always homeless people here at night. I've never seen any campers on the side of the bridge where the cache is located. I am aware that the placement of the cache makes it supseptible to muggling. I do however enjoy it's current spot but if it does go missing, I'll move the new container to a more conventional spot which will be hidden from the public. Please help it to blend by replacing in the same spot, and making sure it's level as not to grab the eye of muggles.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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