Santa Monica Pier 100th Anniversary

This past year, the famous Santa Monica Pier, generally considered the western terminus of Route 66, although it never was, celebrated its 100th anniversary of when its construction began.

It was originally built to carry sewage out to the Pacific. In the 1980s, we were fortunate to have a preservation group fight to keep it from being torn down. An estimated 4 million visit it each year, including my wife and I when we completed our Route 66 End-to-End Tour back in the fall of 2006.

The 1600 foot pier opened September 9, 1909, after 16 months of construction.

1910-- carousel opened (built by the man who also built Coney Island's first carousel)
1916-- Another pier built next to it.
1924-- La Monica Ballroom opened.

The halcyon days were 1924 through the depression/
1983-- storms tore off huge chunks of it.

A Fitting End to Route 66. Park Out Over the Pacific. --RoadDog