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Santa Monica Stairs | |
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Stairways | |
![]() The stairs descending from Adelaide Drive | |
Steps |
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Height |
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Surface | Concrete, wood |
Location | Santa Monica, California, United States |
Coordinates: 34°1′55″N118°30′38″W / 34.03194°N 118.51056°W Coordinates: 34°1′55″N118°30′38″W / 34.03194°N 118.51056°W |
The "Santa Monica Stairs" refer primarily to a pair of outdoor stairways in California descending to the northwest from Adelaide Drive in Santa Monica, to Santa Monica Canyon in Los Angeles.
The two well-known stairways descend from Santa Monica to Los Angeles (Santa Monica Canyon). The mis-named "7th Street stairway" has its upper end across from 526 Adelaide Drive, and leads down to Entrada Drive, across the street from Amalfi Drive. It consists of 152 wooden steps and 18 concrete steps in a straight path, about 5.5 feet wide, separated by three horizontal landings. Altogether the 170 steps produce an overall vertical change of about 110 feet.
The "4th-street stairway" begins at the intersection of 4th Street and Adelaide, leading down to Ocean Avenue Extension. It consists solely of concrete flights interconnected by right- and left-hand turns. There are 189 steps producing an overall vertical change of about 115 feet. [1]
On the Pacific Palisades side of Santa Monica Canyon is the so-called "secret Mesa stairway", which is much less used although it has more steps than either of the above. The base is on Mesa Road, next to 404 Mesa and about a 10-minute walk from West Channel Road. 201 concrete steps rise about 100 feet to the intersection of Upper Mesa Road and Amalfi Drive. There is no railing except for the topmost 18 steps, so descending requires caution. (The stairs are sometimes incorrectly called the "La Mesa stairs"--La Mesa Drive is elsewhere in Santa Monica, and there is a La Mesa Stairway in the city of La Mesa in San Diego County.)
Public transit access to the Santa Monica Canyon stairs is available via Metro Los Angeles bus 534 and Santa Monica Big Blue Bus line 9. [1]
Several other lengthy staircases nearby descend from Palisades Park bluffs to overpasses crossing Pacific Coast Highway to the beach:
Some area residents have complained that the stairs have become too popular, and attract too many exercisers to the wealthy neighborhood of multi-million-dollar properties. [2] [3] [4]
State Route 1 (SR 1) is a major north–south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U.S. state of California. At a total of just over 656 miles (1,056 km), it is the longest state route in California, and the second-longest in the US after Montana Highway 200. SR 1 has several portions designated as either Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), Cabrillo Highway, Shoreline Highway, or Coast Highway. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 5 (I-5) near Dana Point in Orange County and its northern terminus is at U.S. Route 101 (US 101) near Leggett in Mendocino County. SR 1 also at times runs concurrently with US 101, most notably through a 54-mile (87 km) stretch in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps. Stairs may be straight, round, or may consist of two or more straight pieces connected at angles.
The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in California. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area encompasses this mountain range.
Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles, California, situated about 20 miles (32 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles.
State Route 2 (SR 2) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It connects the Los Angeles Basin with the San Gabriel Mountains and the Victor Valley in the Mojave Desert. The highway's southwestern end is at the intersection of Centinela Avenue at the Santa Monica-Los Angeles border and its northeastern end is at SR 138 east of Wrightwood. The SR 2 is divided into four segments, and it briefly runs concurrently with U.S. Route 101 (US 101) and Interstate 210 (I-210). The southwestern section of SR 2 runs along a segment of the east–west Santa Monica Boulevard, an old routing of US 66, to US 101 in East Hollywood; the second section runs along segments of both the north–south Alvarado Street and Glendale Boulevard in Echo Park; the third section to I-210 in Glendale is known as the north–south Glendale Freeway; and the northeastern portion from I-210 in La Cañada Flintridge to SR 138 is designated as the Angeles Crest Highway.
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a United States national recreation area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. The SMMNRA is in the greater Los Angeles region, with two thirds of the parklands in northwest Los Angeles County, and the remaining third, including a Simi Hills extension, in southeastern Ventura County.
The Marvin Braude Bike Trail is a 22-mile (35 km) paved bicycle path that runs mostly along the shoreline of Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles County, California. The coastal bike trail is widely acknowledged as Los Angeles’ “most popular bike path.”
The San Diego Creek bicycle path is the major bicycle backbone of the city of Irvine, California, which largely contains it. It connects major points such as Newport Beach, University of California, Irvine, Boomers, Colonel Bill Barber Park, Irvine Civic Center, The Crossroads Shopping Center, Woodbridge High School, Woodbridge Community Park, Atria Senior Residential Area, Windrow Community Park, Irvine Medical Complex, and ultimately, Irvine Spectrum Center. It also runs through the majority of Irvine's neighborhoods such as Westpark, Woodbridge, and Oak Creek. The path begins where the San Diego Creek empties into Upper Newport Bay. The Bay itself makes for a pleasant ride with a Class 2 bike lane on the Eastern shore along a quiet road, some busy streets in the South and a section of Class 1 path to the east.
The western border of Santa Monica, California, is the 3-mile (4.8 km) stretch of Santa Monica Bay. On its other sides, the city is bordered by various districts of Los Angeles: the northwestern border is Pacific Palisades, the eastern border is Brentwood north of Wilshire Boulevard and West Los Angeles south of Wilshire, the northeastern border is generally San Vicente Boulevard up to the Riviera Country Club, the southwestern border is Venice Beach and the southern border is with West Los Angeles and Mar Vista.
Mandeville Canyon is a small, affluent community in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Its center is Mandeville Canyon Road, which begins at Sunset Boulevard and extends north towards Mulholland Drive, though it stops short of Mulholland and there is no automotive route between the two. Mandeville Canyon Road is said to be the longest paved, dead end road in Los Angeles, at over 5 miles (8.0 km). From start to finish, the road gains 1,000 ft (300 m) in elevation.
Rustic Canyon is a residential neighborhood and canyon in eastern Pacific Palisades, on the west side of Los Angeles, California. It is along Rustic Creek, in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The Survivors' Staircase was the last visible remaining original structure above ground level at the World Trade Center site. It was originally an outdoor flight of granite-clad stairs and two escalators which connected Vesey Street to the World Trade Center's Austin J. Tobin Plaza. During the September 11 attacks, the stairs served as an escape route for hundreds of evacuees from 5 World Trade Center, a 9-floor building adjacent to the Twin Towers. The staircase is now an important feature of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Beverly Drive is a major north–south roadway in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles.
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is a 57-acre (0.23 km2) California State Park is located just southwest of downtown Culver City. To some Los Angeles area residents, the site is more commonly known as the Culver City Stairs. This outdoor staircase is designed into the trails leading up to a view of the greater Los Angeles area.
The California Incline is a slanted road in Santa Monica, California, connecting Ocean Avenue with State Route 1. It technically is the last link, the western end of California Avenue, a major east–west street in Santa Monica.
Palisades Park is a 26.4-acre (10.7 ha) park in Santa Monica, California. The park is located along a 1.6-mile (2.6 km) section of Ocean Avenue on top of an uplifted unconsolidated sedimentary coastal Quaternary terrace with exposed bluffs, offering views of both the Pacific Ocean and the coastal mountains.
The Long Wharf in Santa Monica, also known as Port Los Angeles or the Mile Long Pier, was an extensive pier wharf constructed by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in Santa Monica Bay from 1892–94. When it opened in 1894, it was the longest wharf in the world, measuring approximately 4,700 feet. It served as a cargo and passenger port until 1913, and in 1919 removal of the wharf started. The wharf, the 1000 foot tip of the pier, was removed by 1920. The remaining 3,600 feet of pier was used as a run down fishing pier until 1933, when the remainder of the pier was removed. One of the major imports to the wharf was lumber from Northern ports, to help in the construction boom in Southern California. Southern Pacific Railroad and the street cars of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad served the wharf. Los Angeles Pacific Railroad ran passenger trams to the wharf and from midnight to sunrise ran cargo cars.
The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is a planned vegetated overpass spanning the Ventura Freeway and Agoura Road at Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills, California. The bridge will be one of the largest urban wildlife crossings in the United States, connecting the Simi Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains over a busy freeway with ten traffic lanes, when including exit lanes.
Coldwater Canyon Avenue is a street primarily within the city of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County, California. It runs 10.3 miles (16.6 km) from North Beverly Drive at Coldwater Canyon Park in Beverly Hills, north up Coldwater Canyon, including a short stretch shared with Mulholland Drive, ending at a crossroad intersection with Roscoe Boulevard in Sun Valley where the Coldwater Canyon Avenue becomes Sheldon Street.