Art & Inspiration A cool roadside attraction!

^^^^^That thing is scary^^^^^

 

World’s largest (So Cal largest) single tower, living quarters not including a lighthouse or a forest fire lookout tower.

This huge tower was once a railroad stop for water. It turned into a home for an eccentric person and then, recently sold to a corporation. A possible rental situation @$658 per night!

Hello,

The title: "World’s largest (So Cal largest) single tower, living quarters not including a lighthouse or a forest fire lookout tower," was labeled by me. It was a tall, freight railroad water tower built right on the tracks leading from Seal Beach to Huntington Beach and points South.

The water tower in south Seal Beach (Surfside) that stood out for miles on those long coastal cruise days turned into a 360 degree view home. It certainly is interesting that it pops up on the horizon from miles away. It sold for 1.5 million just a few months ago.

As you drive over the tall bridge leading into the Huntington Harbor waterways on one side and the Navy Ammo loading harbor on the other, this view of the tall water tower is unmistakable. This is all part of the cool coastal cruise from Long Beach down to Laguna Beach and southward to San Diego on Coastal Route 1.

Jnaki

When we used to go surfing out in front of this tower, it was tempting to climb up the ladder, just to check out the surf breaks all along this stretch of the beach from the Surfside Jetty south to Huntington Beach. (and North across the deep water harbor entrance to see the Seal Beach 13th Street breaks.)

photo: v. nak 1968
today
JNAKI, AUG 30, 2016 EDIT DELETE !REPORT!SHARE POST#996 + QUOTE REPLY
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Hello,

If you ever wanted to drive down to Surfside/Sunset Beach this weekend looks cold, but clear for a great drive. Also, this just popped up in the local newspapers:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/tower-737905-house-million.html

OC Register photos Dec 2016

If you ever wanted to see the inside of this huge tower home, the new owners are having an open house this Saturday from 9am to 1pm. I am sure that since it just sold for $1.5 mil, they want people to see it and possibly rent it. But, it is a cool proposition for the So Cal locals to check out one of the most unusual homes in the area and get in a cool drive to the ocean in the process.

Jnaki
History of the Pacific Railroad tracks along the shoreline from Seal Beach to Huntington Beach and South.

“Railroad magnate Henry Huntington ran his trains down here and in exchange, "Pacific City" became "Huntington Beach." Huntington was smart. He was less concerned about mass transportation and more concerned with making it easy for people to visit places he was developing so that he could increase real estate sales. In the 1940s, Los Angeles actually had more than 900 Red Cars that covered more than 1,100 miles all throughout the Southland (the last Red Cars in Southern California ran in 1961).

Here in Huntington Beach, we had a big depot located right at Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street. That was there until the early 1950s at which point it moved over to Atlanta for several years and then was torn down.

But if we were back in the 1940s, just where could you have hopped one of the trains in and around Huntington Beach?

Here's how it broke out. Starting in Seal Beach, along the Newport/Balboa line, was the East Side station stop near Seal Beach Boulevard. Then came the Pensla stop, the Bridgeport stop, and the Surfside Colony stop across from what used to be Sam's Seafood. (Anderson street tower stop)

Continuing south was the Bayview stop, 23rd Street, Sunset Beach near 16th and Pacific Avenue, the Ninth Street stop and a Fifth Street stop. In the traffic circle, where today Warner dead ends at PCH near Jack in the Box, was the Los Patos stop.”


Water tank needed for the off hours, freight trains running on the same tracks:

“The Newport-Balboa Line was not a heavy freight line; the three year (1935-37) average freight revenue per mile of line was but $2,559 putting it well down among the "also rans". Heaviest station was East Long Beach, with Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Newport Beach and Balboa following in that order. An average of 1,994 cars was handled annually, carrying an average of 78,768 tons of freight, and resulting in an average revenue of $55,524 for the 21.7 miles from Los Cerritos to Newport.

Before the construction of the Pacific Coast Highway (U.S. 101) which closely parallels this line, PE freight trains did much better; the author remembers as a boy getting up at dawn to meet the Balboa freight and riding the cab into town; most of the community's necessities were handled by PE in those days. Locomotive 1611 brought freight cars full of groceries, furniture, medical supplies, and almost anything else one might name.

Sugar beets brought considerable carloads down the Wiebling branch in the old days, and when oil was discovered at Huntington Beach, PE did a land office business moving in materials and taking out black gold by the carload.

In later years the boat builders at Newport created a demand for lumber, fittings, etc., and completed boats moved out via PE flat cars.

Freight to East Long Beach consisted in the main of general merchandise among which lumber was prominent.”

 

Before we were married, my wife went to school in Long Beach. She used to live about 2 miles from that tower in north Huntington Beach. I used to visit form Phoenix about twice a month. Now she has finished school, moved to Phoenix and married me for some reason.

 

Started to Huntington Beach Sunday of GNRS - my granddaughter wanted to see "that other ocean" , but Newport was closer. gorgeous warm day - cold water. Lotsa' surfers in wet suits. I would love to drive up the highway along the coast.

 

YES SCARY Don, but delicious

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Hey S,
Great photo of a very nice day, last week. With the rest of the country in super cold and/or bad weather, we were all basking in what you were able to feel. The next time you are here in So Cal, if you start at Pt. Mugu north of LA on the coastline, you can drive all along the coast for 90% of the time through the South Orange County line, just before Camp Pendleton. Growing up in this area was pretty nice as it is one of the best drives in a crowded civilization.

Jnaki
It is quite a contrast from the Coastline to Pomona. Freeway close as some would put it.

 

Places

 

{ BONEYARD51} THANKS, Great photos! That's on our list of things to see. I'd like to take some photos of our family, standing on the Corner of Winslow Arizona. {Jnaki} I really enjoy your photos also. We have Flown to Ca. a few times. But had to rent an O.T. convertible. To take an P.C.H. road trip. I kept thinking how much fun it would be, if I had the Hot Rod. There were so many great sites to see. My wife loved the El Matador beach the best. Of course my favorite was at the Pete. Lol I really do envy you growing up on the west coast. So I hope that you keep posting them. Here's a picture from the USS Midway Museum. It's a 25 foot statue called the Kiss. This is at San Diego Ca. Thanks Ron...

 

Not at the roadside but under the ground. Lost sea at Sweetwater TN. Largest underground lake in the U.S.A. We sat in a tiny boat with a real fat guy. Thought the bloody thing would sink . They have big albino fish that have never seen the sunlight. Then drive on to the Forbidden moonshine caves. Can turn a semi down there, the caves are huge.

 

Forgot the choo-choo on the way to Dollywood.

 

Has this been posted. We were in New Orléans a few years ago and the weather was lousy. I had a quick look at the roadmap and saw that Tupelo was,nt to far away. So we hit the road. The missus was happy to visit the house. Could,nt buy a beer on Sunday in the bible belt though.

 

Still looks like a big butt.

 

Just a old abandoned building, that I saw along the roadside. It would make a COOL garage. Also makes you wonder what could be inside too. Ron......

 

CARRIER TO THE RIGHT WITH THE TALL TRIANGLE LIGHT

Hello,

That huge aircraft carrier is a tourist draw for sure. Parking nearby is horrendous, even if a couple is going to one of those great waterfront restaurants. We have seen that aircraft carrier from the tall hotels around, from the water, from http://www.sundiegolive.com , and from across the bay. (from Coronado) That San Diego City skyline during the day and night is very impressive and makes us want to live there. The carrier just adds to the sea going nature of the huge bay.

ON THE 4TH OF JULY, the whole San Diego Bay lights up with the “BIG BAY BOOM” Fireworks booming at several points all over the big bay from Coronado Bridge all the way to the ocean entrance at Point Loma.

Jnaki

The city itself and the surrounding area is typical of a So Cal beach/ocean influenced destination. It takes an hour north to Orange County, 2 hours to Los Angeles. You can see why we liked driving down the coast to explore the different surf spots all along this particular coastline. 2 hours north to Santa Barbara, 2 hours south to San Diego from our old house in Long Beach in 1960-65. It was a long, rough ride in the sedan delivery. But, hey, we were teenagers on a mission.

But, the cool thing is that the thick forests are within an hour or two, the desert, 3 hours and the ocean lapping at your doorstep. There is also a newly re-constructed, bay view, international airport right in the thick of things. The great thing about the bay is that most of the time, it keeps the surrounding area “cool” in more ways that just the water.

 

Hello,
Here is the latest webcam shot of the USS Midway shining brightly in the early morning. San Diego is just waking up to a slightly cold day... 59 degrees. It is still cloudy, breezy and a light weight jacket and shorts type weather. Rain is forecast for later this coming week. Rain in So Cal...a pleasant surprise, for sure.

Jnaki

 

Made it down to Lake Taupo New Zealand and found a couple of cool places to stop.






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Ho Ho Ho The Jolly Green Giant. At Blue Earth Minnesota, On Interstate-90

 

would have loved to see with the neon on

 

castle rock , St Ignace MI in The U.P.

 

This is George Washington's Cool pad. It's just off old route -1 , just south of Washington D.C. and overlooking the Potomac river. in Virginia.

 

Hey, Ron ,good to hear from you. We are retired now and travel most of the warm months and have seen a lot of he sites posted here on your thread. Even tho I was born on the West coast, many moons ago, I now have the privilege of living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the center of our great nation. So, it makes travel to anywhere easier. Excellent post, love to see the sites I’ve seen and the ones I planning to see, some I didn’t know about till I saw them here. Keep them coming guys! Bones

Oh! I read on down and figured out you responded to two people here. A little slow but I usually get there. Lol Bones

 

They say things are BIGGER in Texas. This is a guard shack at the Igloo Corp. on Igloo rd. Katy Texas.

 

Hello,

With all of the posts on Winslow, Arizona… it definitely is a popular travel spot. We had to drive through it to get to our Albuquerque, NM destination after a long drive from So Cal. So, we “drove right by the corner in Winslow, Arizona…” But, for this driving trip, it was destination OKC for the views and searches of the old homestead properties. As we left Albuquerque, an idea popped up in my wife’s ever swirling mind… “Lets go see Roswell, NM and my dad’s old military school.”

An 8 hour straight through drive to OKC from Albuquerque, turned into a 6-7 hour out of the way, side trip. Roswell, NM was the home to the old military school that my wife’s dad had attended when he was a teenager. (New Mexico Military Institute.) But, the town just happens to be the home of the famous alien center of the USA.
photo v.nak
We were headed to OKC to see the old homes where my wife had grown up in different stages of her younger years. This was supposed to be the first stop all the way across the USA to Maine. But the terrible, summer road construction just outside of OKC on the way to St. Louis made us give up and head back West through Kansas,Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and all of the huge, national parks. Resort cancellations galore, but we saw a different part of the USA on the unplanned, return trip to So Cal.

Roswell? Well, it is not the big thing as advertised. We would not drive 3 hours out of the primary road trip just to see this city and the museum, if we were…“On the road, Again.” If you have seen “X Files,” you have seen Roswell. Nothing to report home to, as the place is an old town with a scruffy movie theater as the alien museum. It reminded us of the old movie, “Last Picture Show.” The most popular thing in the museum was the crop circle photo display, then again, it was just ok. Sorry, there was just not that much for our interests or photos.
Roswell Museum, photo v.nak crop circle display
From Needles, CA on Route 40, it is the old Route 66 eastward. But to get to the cut off for Roswell, New Mexico, we had to stop overnight in Albuquerque. 12 plus hours of driving from So Cal called for a rest stop. After spending a day/night in Albuquerque we had to continue the trip east to a funky freeway turn off at Cline’s Corner. But, that road from Cline’s Corner all the way south to Roswell, NM is the emptiest, loneliest road in this whole area. Great music and conversation kept the atmosphere up tempo.

With all of the hoopla for the alien space museum in Roswell, this gas stop in the middle of nowhere was more fun to see. What a place.

Late 1950's


google photo

 

jnaki,

When you were in Roswell did you stop at the McDonald's that's shaped like an alien spaceship? Well, I didn't either, but drove by it a few times. After all, a McDonald's is still a McDonald's. It's about 7-8 blocks south of New Mexico Military Institute right on the main drag.



Looks like the best thing about this pic I snagged from Google Earth is the '68 Chevelle in the parking lot.

I did, however, get a very cool tee shirt from Champion Harley-Davidson that has aliens riding scoots on it.

 

Hey Atch,

No, sorry, we did not stop at that spaceship McDonalds. When we were in Roswell on our cross country road trip, it was 2003 and that McDonalds was not around in that configuration. That was constructed in 2005. I am sorry to say that despite the notoriety of the alien city and stuff, it was nothing to write home about. Even the military institute was a little disappointing.

So, we drove out of Roswell and continued the scenic route through Lubbock, Texas towards Oklahoma. We did not want to go back on Route 40, so we took a southern route on the final destination of this portion of our trip, OKC. See any hot rods? Not too many, but lots of old and new pickup trucks...after all, we were in Texas leading up to OKC.

Jnaki

One thing we remember was that during this whole long driving trip, we were listening to a new Daryl Hall single CD that we bought. Today, that CD is missing and come to find out, a rare one as far as a normal purchase.($41-59.99 for a new CD) (we recently purchased the MP3 version for our Ipod players.) “Can’t Stop Dreaming” CD was perfect for the long barren roads leading to and from Roswell, NM.

“Cab Driver” was what I felt like on this long road trip…

 

Jnaki, I really enjoy when you and others, post vintage photos of the past, and then post photos of the way it looks today.{like the Clines Corners etc. }Thanks Here's a 26 foot Marilyn Monroe, Photo from Palm Springs Ca. Worlds biggest BLOOMERS

 

Wow Ron, that’s umm, cool


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Hi Ron,
Thanks, I usually do not put in photos unless we have some photos of our own. Roswell, for example: I was expecting to take a ton of photos with all of the hoopla on the alien stuff. But, when we got there, poof, it was not that hot. It was fairly drab, and not too interesting.

If that space ship McDonalds was there in Roswell, we probably would have eaten there. We did, however, eat at the worlds largest McDonalds over a freeway on the way to St. Louis, later in the road trip.

Jnaki
Why? Just because (it is the largest)....and we were starving and stopped here to eat in the world's largest McDonalds restaurant. (over a freeway) We were able to look down and back towards OKC.

p.s. We did not see that Marilyn statue the last time we were in Palm Springs. long before its time during 2012-2014. When we were there, it was very hectic with a ton of people gathering for a huge outdoor concert in 1968-69. We did not do "touristy" stuff back then, but were concentrating on the gathering of people and the So Cal concert. We will definitely see it this time if it ever comes back.

"VINITA, Okla. - Oklahoma's biggest McDonald's--and at one time the largest in the world--will be shutting its doors, but just temporarily. The Vinita Service Plaza over Interstate-44 is now 56 years old. Officials with the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority say it's time for a makeover.Mar 26, 2013"
THEN
NOW