Crossing the Los Angeles River
Alan Weeks Collection
A pair of Pacific Electric PCC cars head southbound over the Glendale Line’s trestle-bridge spanning the still-wild / as-yet-not-concrete Los Angeles River in this image dated October 15, 1949.
Alan Weeks Collection
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Notice one tower of the Hyperion Viaduct at the left.
http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/lariver/los-feliz/glendale-blvd.html
(don’t bother with the video)
Actually the river was already channelized in concrete by 1949. The train in the picture hasn’t yet crossed the river; that’s just an vacant patch of land along the river side. The river is out of the range of the picture, beyond the left side of the image.
It couldn’t be the river that the train is crossing, since 1) The tracks are too low at that point and could be taken out easily by a flood; 2) The actual L.A. River in that area is always flowing with water (and therefore never had a concrete bottom) due to being close to the water table.
The river is to the left. The bridge was plate girder on huge concrete piers, which are still there in April 2012.
A wider view shot of the entire crossing taken from western side of the river: http://www.pacificelectric.org/pacific-electric/western-district/5028-at-riverside-and-monte-sano/