On the edge of an immense urban city and just before the Pacific ocean washes its westerly wave against these high cliffs of San Pedro, there lays a neighborhood quietly positioned on its peak. Merely a seagulls caw away from the port district of Los Angeles, a breezy neighborhood is unaware of certain disaster! Sunken City of San Pedro!
Road bed, now elevated used to connect.
There are lots of family fun things that you could do in San Pedro. For example lets visit the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, The Korean Bell of Friendship, The Vincent Thomas suspension bridge, the Fermin Point Lighthouse or perhaps the USS Iowa battleship harbored there. But nope, I want to check out the Sunken City - a mix of dirt and churned up concrete roadway. Am I strange or just a little off? I could just be drawn to disaster. But really, is this a true sunken city?
The name brings up images in my mind of grand ancient cities that have been lost for centuries with an unlimited bounty of treasure and wealth. So, is that what we have here in San Pedro? No, not really. Instead of a Sunken City, I would call this more of a “Recessed Block”. Heck, its more of a washed out street. I still think it pretty cool though. So how did this happen you ask? Well, I am no historian or geologist, but I have this wiki thing on the inter-web just like everybody else, so lets see what I can glean from this.
Where the road ends. On the cliff over looking the sunken area that was level with this road at one time.
1929 was the year that residents in this area noticed that their plots of land were slowly creeping toward the Pacific. Some accounts described land slumping 11 inches per day, so it was by no means a sudden occurrence. History shows that the city was able to move the impacted homes out of harms way before the landslide ate them whole. But you can see that evidence remains of the concrete foundations, paved city streets and gutters that now act as willing surfaces for modern street artists to make their mark.
Self Portrait, LOMO 360 Spinner, Sunken City.
The area is restricted access, but that does not deter loads of meandering people from entering the area, to explore, paint and even throw a football around. Its sort of like a outcast's playground. Some play pretty hard here, especially at night. The area is littered with discarded cases of beer, broken bottles, fast food wrappers and spray paint cans. Sunken City is a hide-a-way and a party place and while it might be family fun for some, it is a final resting place for others – so if you plan to visit this recess, step carefully.
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