Exploring Downtown's Industrial Side by Bike

Eric Richardson

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — I took advantage of the nice weather this afternoon, hopping on my bike to explore more of Downtown. It's funny, I've lived Downtown for a year and a half now but I still feel like I take these trips as a tourist. There are so many great places to wander without going far at all.

Today's destination was the southern end of Downtown's industrial areas. Last week I had explored the Artists District and the bits just across the river, but hadn't gone much south of 7th. I took a good number of pictures, and posted them as a flickr set.

You can see a vague representation of this afternoon's path here on Gmaps Pedometer (which apparently doesn't work in Safari). Somehow I added two miles to what's on that map, but I can't remember where I missed it. More things to notice after the jump...

In no particular order:

If you haven't seen the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant in person, you should really go over there and check it out yourself. Why is it a ship? I don't know. It's cool, though.

Growing up I had an N-scale model railroad laid out on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood in my bedroom. I guess that's why I'm still drawn to anything involving trains. Given that, this part of Downtown is amazing. Trains everywhere. It is the end of the Alameda Corridor after all.

This "You Are Beautiful" message I would assume is connected to this concept project, though it doesn't show up on the site that I could find.

Downtown's bridges are amazing in their detail work. This is from the Washington Blvd. bridge over the LA river.