Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-06-15
THE CO MING CITY.

THUS FAR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
l. has lacked commercial city. Los An
geles has, perhaps more nearly than any
other place, attempted to supply this want
but Los Angeles has never been quite able to
Offset the great disadvantages of harbor so
defective as almost to be worthless. The
United States Goyernment has expended over
half million dollars on San Pedro Bay with
out any apparent beneficial result, and freight
and passengers are discharged into lighters,
thence carried several miles up narrow,
shallow, muddy creek, and finally disem-
barke d In q swamp, twenty-six miles by rail
from Los Angeles.
Twenty miles North of San Pedro and d.
rectly West of Los Angeles, from which II is
but fourteen miles distant, lies the beautiful
bay of Santa Monica The harbOr Is so much
better than San Pedro that, during recent
gale, while the steamer was unable to dis
charge into lighter at the latter place, but
carried her cargo on to San Diego, schooner
unloaded at Santa Monica lumber for the
construction ofthe wharf at that point. This
wharf Is two Thousand feet in length and
reaches point where there is thirty feet Of
water at low tide. From the wharf to Los
Angeles the roaI-bed of the proposed abroad
is graded; the ties are contracted for and
enough iron has been purchased and shipped
to construct the road distance of forty M lies.
The gr8dIng through Cajon Pass is also nearly
done, and means have been secured to con-
struct the road to Independence within
That santa Monica is to be the future city
of Southern California will be readily con-
ceded after an examination of its many adj
vantageS.
There is not to be found on the Pacific Coast,
and perhaps not the Atlantic, such another
site for watering place. For ten miles there
driving at a II stages the tlde. Unlike other
points where there is an interregnum-s to
speak-of half a mile or more of sand between
the ocean beach and the arabic land, the fer
tile valley comes to the very edge OF the sea,
and from height of forty feet looks down on
the water
But It is as a commercial city that Santa
Monica has its greatest expectations When
reached Cajon Pass-a result which will be
achieved by January next-it will be within
fifty miles uf the surveyed route of the Texas
Pacific Railroad, while that r ad will be over
two hundred miles from San Diego. The con-
structiOn of fifty miles of road would, there.
fore, send the Texas Pacific to Santa Monica
for terminus-to Santa Monica, where swift
and elegant steamers, running in twenty-four
hours TO San francisco, over stOrmless seas,
will convey passengers more pleasantly and
as expeditiously as by rail Again, the road
to Independence will, at some day, not very
remote, be connected with the Utah, Southern
and Central Roads, and so connect with the
Union Pacific at Ogden, thus making Santa
Monica the terminus of two overland roads
and giving to her merchants mo opoly of
the rich trade of Panamint, Cerro Gordo, Coso
and the mining districts of Inyo, Kern and
San Bernardlno counties. That there will be
city OF %, QUO people at Santa Monica within
three years and of 100000 within ten years,
is, when the wonderful mineral and agricul-
tural capabilities of the surrounding country
are considered, not an over-estimate. This
city of the future will present attractions az
place OF residence not elsewhere to be offered.
A gentle Southern slope to the beach gives
natural drainage and avoids the heavy charge
for grading streets. Water in abundance can
be brought through pipes from copious springs
only two miles away; and, should these prove
insufficient, the, neghboring san Vicente
mountains can be "tapped" " of the streams
which run through their canyons. In the
meantime an abundance of sweet, cool water
can be obtained by means o' ordinary wells
at depth OF thirty feet. The soil of all the
valley is productive, and the homes of Santa
Monica will speedily be embowered in shrub
bry and trees
The site of the proposed city is on the ranch
of Sarta Monica, containing $4,000 acres. This
ranch has of late years been used as a sheep
pasture, but the soil is very rich and any kind
Of crops can be grown without irrigation, as
its proximity to the sea supplies all necessary
moisture.
1t is the intention of the proprietors to d.
vide the land about the city into twenty and
forty-acre tracts and dispose of them to actual
settlers for orange orchards.