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The most popular tourist attractions include Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Knott's Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain - Los Angeles, Third Street Promenade, Disneyland Park and Universal Studios Hollywood. A popular way to see tourist attractions in Los Angeles is to buy the ... more »
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Aquarium of the Pacific Beverly Hills Burbank Disneyland© Park Disney's California Adventure™ Park Downtown Disney® District Griffith Observatory Hollywood Hollywood Entertainment Museum Hollywood Walk of Fame House of Blues Sunset Strip J. Paul Getty Museum Knott's Berry Farm LACMA Los Angeles Clippers Los Angeles Dodgers Los Angeles Galaxy Los Angeles Kings Los Angeles Lakers Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens Malibu Mann's Chinese Theater Marina del Rey Page Museum La Brea Tar Pits Pasadena Redondo Beach RMS Queen Mary Rodeo Drive Rose Bowl San Fernando Valley Santa Monica Santa Monica Pier Six Flags Hurricane Harbor - Los Angeles Six Flags Magic Mountain - Los Angeles Soak City U.S.A. Orange County Sunset Boulevard/Strip Third Street Promenade Universal Studios® Hollywood Venice Beach & Boardwalk West Hollywood
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Airports The most popular tourist attractions include Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Knott's Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain - Los Angeles, Third Street Promenade, Disneyland© Park and Universal Studios® Hollywood.
A popular way to see tourist attractions in Los Angeles is to buy the Go Los Angeles Card (external source)
Los Angeles—often known simply as L.A.—is the largest city in the state of California, the second-largest in the United States. As of the 2005 U.S. Census estimate, the city had a population of 3.8 million.
Los Angeles is arguably the world's leading producer of popular entertainment—such as motion pictures, television, and recorded music—which gives a great boost to its international fame.
Los Angeles is also one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world—it is home to people from virtually every nation on Earth. The city has hosted two Olympic Games—in 1932 and 1984—and is home to world-renowned scientific and cultural institutions. People have long been attracted to the world-class city for its balmy weather, unique and vibrant lifestyle, laid-back energy, Pacific Rim Gateway status, and the hope of realizing the "American Dream."
The land area is the 9th largest in the Continental United States (excluding Juneau, Alaska and Honolulu, Hawaii).
The highest point in Los Angeles is Sister Elsie Peak (5,080 feet) at the far reaches of the northeastern San Fernando Valley, part of Mt. Lukens. The Los Angeles River is a largely seasonal river flowing through the city, with headwaters in the San Fernando Valley. Its length is almost entirely lined in concrete.
The Los Angeles area is remarkably rich in native plant species. With its beaches, dunes, wetlands, hills, mountains, and rivers, the area contains a number of important biological communities. The largest area is coastal sage scrub, which covers the hillsides in combustible chaparral.
The city is divided into many neighborhoods, many of which were towns that were annexed by the growing city. There are also several independent cities in and around Los Angeles, but they are popularly grouped with the city of Los Angeles, either due to being completely engulfed by Los Angeles, or lying within its immediate vicinity. Generally, the city is divided into the following areas: Downtown L.A., East L.A., South Los Angeles, the South Bay/Harbor, Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire (or Mid City), the Westside (which includes West Los Angeles as well as the cities of Santa Monica and West Hollywood), and the San Fernando Valley. Recently in the last ten years, "Eastside" has appeared as a new designation to contrast with the more traditional "Westside" description (though many Angelenos reject the term as a trendy East Coast import). Some well-known communities of Los Angeles include Venice Beach, the downtown financial district, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Hancock Park, Koreatown, and the extremely affluent areas of Bel-Air, Westwood, Malibu, Holmby Hills, and Brentwood to name a few.
The Los Angeles coastal area was inhabited by the Tongva (or Gabrieleños), Chumash, and earlier Native American peoples for thousands of years. The Spanish arrived in 1542, when Juan Cabrillo visited the area. In 1769, Gaspar de Portolà led an expedition across southern California with Franciscan Padres Junípero Serra and Juan Crespi.
Small Ranch Town
Father Crespi had picked out a site along the river for a mission, but in 1771 Father Serra had the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel built near Whittier Narrows. After a 1776 flood, the mission was moved to its present site in San Gabriel. The Mission Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Angeles was established on September 4, 1781 by a group of 44 Mexican settlers who had set out from the San Gabriel mission to establish a settlement along the banks of the Porciúncula River. The new governor of California, Felip de Neve, recommended to the viceroy in Mexico that the site be developed into a pueblo (town). The area was duly named "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula," ("The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the River Porciúncula"). It remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820 the population had increased to about 650 residents, making it the largest civilian community in Spanish California. Today the outline of the Pueblo is preserved in a historic monument familiarly called Olvera Street.
The Gold Rush
Mexico's independence from Spain was achieved in 1821, but the greatest change took place in present-day Montebello after the Battle of Rio San Gabriel in 1847, when Americans took control of the fledgling city. Americans solidified control over the city after they flooded into California during the Gold Rush and secured the subsequent admission of California into the United States.
Railroads, Water and Oil
Los Angeles was incorporated as a city in 1850. Railroads arrived when the Southern Pacific completed its line to Los Angeles in 1876. Oil was discovered in 1892, and by 1923 Los Angeles was supplying one-quarter of the world's petroleum. Even more important to the city's growth was water. In 1913, William Mulholland completed the aqueduct that assured the city's growth. Starting 1915, the City of Los Angeles started annexation of dozens of neighboring communities without water supplies of their own. A largely fictionalized account of the Owens Valley Water War can be found in the 1974 motion picture Chinatown.
Airplanes and Movies
In the 1920s the motion picture and aviation industries both flocked to Los Angeles and helped to further develop it. The city was the proud host of the 1932 Summer Olympics and along with it the development of Baldwin Hills, the original Olympic Village. World War II brought new growth and prosperity to the city, although many of its Japanese-American residents were transported to internment camps for the duration of the war. This period also saw the arrival of the German exiles, who included such notables as Thomas Mann, Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht and Lion Feuchtwanger. The postwar years saw an even greater boom as urban sprawl expanded into the San Fernando Valley.
Race Riots, Earthquakes
The Watts riots in 1965 showed the nation the deep racial divisions that the city faced. The ARPANET (the Internet's ancestor) was born in Los Angeles. In 1969, the first ARPANET transmission was sent from UCLA to SRI in Menlo Park. The XXIII Olympiad was successfully hosted in Los Angeles in 1984. The city was once again tested by the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake and a city-wide vote on San Fernando Valley and Hollywood secession was defeated in 2002. Now, urban redevelopment and gentrification have been taking place at a furious pace in various parts of the city, most notably Downtown, which is poised to be the home of many more cultural and entertainment institutions than ever before.
The people of Los Angeles are known as Angelenos. L.A. can truly be described as a "world city" (Alpha World City) — that is, it has one of the largest and most diverse populations of any municipality anywhere. It has the second largest percentage of foreign-born citizens of any major U.S. city, after Miami. The Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the number one entry for immigrants in the country. The Hispanic, Carribean, and Asian American populations are growing particularly quickly — the Asian American population is the largest of any city in the U.S. and the city contains the largest concentration of Los Angeles County's 1.4 million Asians.
Los Angeles hosts the largest populations of Armenians, Cambodians, Filipinos, jamaicans, Guatemalans, Hungarians, Iranians, Israelis, Puerto Ricans, Koreans, Laotians, Mexicans, Salvadorans, Thais, Dominicans, and Vietnamese in the world outside of their respective countries. Los Angeles is also home to the largest populations of Persians (Iranians) and Japanese living in the U.S., and has one of the largest Native American populations in the country.
Ethnically Diverse
It is home to people from more than 140 countries, who speak at least 224 different languages. Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Historic Filipinotown, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Phnom Penh, Little Ethiopia, Little Persia, Little Tokyo, Thai Town, and Little Saigon give testimony to the polyglot character of Los Angeles and its unique diversity.
Restaurants, Bars and Clubs
Great restaurants of all types abound in Los Angeles, thus the city is a fine location for exquisite dining. Many celebrity chefs are also based in the city, the most notable being Wolfgang Puck. The nightlife in Los Angeles is very vibrant, with an immense array of bars, clubs, lounges, and other venues that cater to many tastes. Nighttime hotspots include places such as Downtown Los Angeles, Silver Lake, Hollywood, and West Hollywood, which is the home of the world-famous Sunset Strip.
Shopping
Furthermore, the Los Angeles area also boasts a prominent shopping scene. Anything can be bought in the city; some of the best shopping areas include Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Third Street Promenade and Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, Old Town Pasadena, the Hollywood and Highland complex, the Beverly Center, The Grove, Melrose Avenue, and Robertson Boulevard.
Los Angeles has one of the largest freeway systems in the world, with 27 intertwining freeways handling millions of commuters as they journey a daily collective migration of about 100 million miles (160 million km). Los Angeles is the most car-populated metropolis in the world with about 1 car per 1.8 people. In fact, more automobiles are registered in the Los Angeles area than all of Russia. The automobile traffic in Los Angeles has been getting exponentially worse over the last few years, causing long commutes and reduced productivity. The traffic problems in Los Angeles necessitate the need for improved rail transportation and novel approaches.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other agencies operate an extensive system of bus lines, as well as subway and light rail lines, which together carry over a million passengers a day. The major rail system includes the Red Line subway, the Gold, Blue, and Green light rail lines, and the Orange Line, a bus rapid transit line. The special red Metro Rapid buses have also been highly touted as a prime example of a successful bus transit program since these buses operate like a rail line and run through the best-known parts of the city. Currently under construction is an eastside extension of the Gold Line. In the works is a new rail line called the Exposition Line. Momentum is slowly building to extend the subway under Wilshire Boulevard all the way to the ocean in Santa Monica, ushering in an even more extensive public transportation system. Rail passenger service is provided by Amtrak and Metrolink from historic Union Station. Rail shipping is handled by Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway.
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Airports
The Los Angeles metropolitan area is served by more airports than any major city in the world, with 5 major commercial airports, and many more general-aviation airports. The main Los Angeles airport is Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX, ICAO: KLAX), the fifth busiest commercial airport in the world. LAX handled 55 million passengers and 2 million tons of cargo in 2003. Other major commercial airports include Ontario International Airport (IATA: ONT, ICAO: KONT), Bob Hope Airport (IATA: BUR, ICAO: KBUR), formerly known as Burbank Airport, Long Beach Municipal Airport (IATA: LGB, ICAO: KLGB), and John Wayne Airport (IATA: SNA, ICAO: KSNA). Los Angeles also has the world's busiest general-aviation airport, Van Nuys Airport (IATA: VNY, ICAO: KVNY).
Seaports
The sea ports of the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach together make up the Los Angeles - Long Beach Harbor, the busiest and overall third-largest container shipping port in the world. There are also smaller, non-industrial harbors along L.A.'s coastline. Most of these contain sailboats and yachts, like Redondo Beach and Marina Del Rey.
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* The city is situated in a Mediterranean climate or subtropical zone, experiencing mild, reasonably dry winters and warm to hot, dry summers. Generally the weather is warm and dry in all seasons, with 325 days of sunshine a year. Breezes from the Pacific Ocean tend to keep the beach communities of the Los Angeles area cooler in summer and warmer in winter than those further inland, and summer temperatures can sometimes vary by as much as 25 °F warmer in the inland communities compared to that of the coastal communities. The coastal communities of Los Angeles are commonly affected by a phenomenon known as a 'marine layer', a dense cloud cover caused by the proximity of the ocean, that helps keep the temperatures cooler throughout the year.
Temperatures in the summer can get well over 90 °F (32 °C), but average summer daytime highs are 85 °F (29 °C), with overnight lows of 66 °F (18 °C). Winter daytime high temperatures will get up to around 70 °F (21 °C), on average, with overnight lows of 48 °F (8 °C) and during this season rain is a possibility. The median temperature in January is 58.3 °F (14.6 °C) and 74.3 °F (23.5 °C) in July. The highest temperature recorded within city borders was 119.0 °F (48.33 °C) in Woodland Hills on July 22, 2006; the lowest temperature recorded was 18.0 °F (-7.8 °C) in 1989, in Canoga Park.
The highest temperature ever recorded for Los Angeles was 112.0 °F (44.4 °C) on June 26, 1990, and the lowest temperature ever recorded was 28.0 °F (-2.2 °C) on January 4, 1949. Rain occurs mainly in the winter and spring months (February being the wettest month) with great variations in storm severity year by year. Los Angeles averages 15 inches (381 mm) of precipitation per year. It rarely snows in the city basin, but the mountains slopes within city limits typically receive snow every year. With weather permitting, it is possible to snow ski and surf on the same day in the Los Angeles area.
Temperature - Yearly Average
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Distances are calculated as the crow flies, and are provided as an aid in planning only.
* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
