Embassy of the of America U.S. CITIES

Los Angeles,

LOS ANGELES

©Shutterstock.com City of Angels Offers More than Stars os Angeles is famous for its now zip down roads that Native City history includes these other Hollywood movie stars and Americans and Spanish settlers milestones: filmmakers, but visitors to once traveled on horseback. L • 1886 — The price of a train the “City of Angels” can venture When Mexico gained its inde- ticket between Kansas City and beyond Universal Studios and pendence from Spain in 1821, the Los Angeles falls to a dollar, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to city of Los Angeles still had a tiny prompting another population a cosmopolitan city that offers population of about 100 people. boom. By 1890 the population of activities from surfing at Malibu’s This changed dramatically after Los Angeles reaches 50,000. pristine beaches to exploring the 1848, when gold was discovered desert wildlife of Joshua Tree The Santa Monica Pier is a popular tourist destination. in California. Millions of people National Park. ©Shutterstock.com rushed to the West Coast to strike it rich, and the population of Then and Now Los Angeles grew into the thou- The many freeways that criss- sands. The Treaty of Guadalupe cross Los Angeles trace the city’s Hidalgo had ceded California to history. Highway 101 follows the the United States in 1848, and all old El Camino Real, a trail built of its residents became citizens. by Spanish missionaries from 1769 to 1823. Hybrid convertibles Los Angeles, California

• 1905 — Real estate developer Abbot Kinney carves out canals near Santa Monica Beach, nam- ing the district “the Venice of California.” Six of the original canals still exist, and both locals and tourists stroll along them after visiting Venice Beach. • 1907 — The Southwest Museum of the American Indian opens. Today it holds one of the largest and most important collections of Native American art and cultural The Getty Center’s architecture helps attract 1.3 million visitors annually to the location in Los Angeles ©Shutterstock artifacts in the United States. • 1915 — Carl Laemmle opens Universal Film Manufacturing which you’ll see the set of Jaws, the sign. The surrounding hills and trails Company, the world’s largest first modern blockbuster. are part of Griffith Park, the larg- est urban park in the United States. motion picture production facil- • 1922 — The Hollywood Bowl In 1896 Colonel Griffith J. Griffith ity. Today, you can visit Universal holds its first concert. Today, it donated almost 13 square kilometers Studios and take a tour during is the summer home of the Los of his ranch land to create the public Angeles Philharmonic. Artists space. It now covers 16 square kilo- from Frank Sinatra and Judy The People meters of mountains, dales and flat- Garland to the Beatles and Juanes The second-largest city in the United lands between Hollywood and the have performed on its stage. States, Los Angeles is home to more . than 3,800,000 people. The city’s rich • 2005 — Antonio Villa raigosa wins In west Los Angeles, you can cruise culture is reflected in its many ethnic the race for mayor of Los Angeles, communities, including Chinatown, down the Pacific Coast Highway becoming the city’s first mayor of Filipinotown, Little Ethiopia and Thai and visit the Getty Villa. Looking Town. Latinos make up almost half of the Hispanic descent since 1872. out over the ocean, the Getty city’s diverse population, which speaks Museum houses a large collec- more than 200 different languages. Live Like an Angelino tion of Greek and Roman art. Also The Land In Los Angeles, the sights and sounds on the Pacific Coast Highway, the Framed by the Pacific Ocean to the of the movies come alive. The Griffith Santa Monica Pier offers spectacu- west and the San Gabriel Mountains Observatory, used as a set in Rebel lar views of the city from its solar- to the north, Los Angeles boasts Without a Cause and The Terminator, powered Ferris wheel. Whether varied terrains. The city’s 1,200 square is also a planetarium with an exten- you enjoy swimming at the beach, kilometers cover hills and valleys sive array of science and space that are home to diverse wetlands, hiking along gorgeous trails or eat- exhibits. The Leonard Nimoy Event gorgeous coasts and arid deserts. ing in Beverly Hills in hopes of Horizon Theater, named for the actor spotting a celebrity, Los Angeles The Weather who played Spock in the original Star has something for most everyone. Los Angeles has a subtropical- Trek television series, opened in 2006. Mediterranean climate, with warm From Griffith Observatory, you can temperatures year-round. Albert Hammond famously sang, “It Never Rains hike to the world-famous Hollywood in Southern California,” and with 330 days of sun, visitors can enjoy Venice Beach even in winter.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE September 2012 BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION PROGRAMS