Fred E. Basten Main St. to Malibu, Yesterday & Today, Graphics Press: Santa Monica, CA, 1980, 123 pp., 1933
"Proposed Santa Monica breakwater, 1926 . . . despite the Great Depression a bond issue was passed to build a breakwater opposite the end of the Municipal Pier. The first attempt was a disaster and the tied concrete caisons, set into sandbars, broke away with the heavy currents. In 1933, construction on a 2,000-foot rock breakwater was begun. Again, heavy seas won out, ripping away the upper portion so that today only a portion is visible at high tide. The remaining breakwater's only benefit, over the years, has been to change the natural sand-carrying currents in the area, thus greatly widening the beach."