Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1907, 1875
Chapter 1: Santa Monica's North Beach (1875-1907)
"By February 1875, road gangs of Chinese laborers were cutting through the soft palisade at the end of a Santa Monica arroyo to create rail acccess to a 1,740 foot long wharf. A freighter arrived at the ShooFly Landing on April 19th to unload a shipment of Oregon fir logs. Three days later workers, using a steam driven pile driver, began pounding piles for the wharf into the bay's sandy bottom. Construction was also started on the Santa Monica Hotel located on the bluff north of the wharf. It served as lodgings for the railroad workers and later became Santa Monica's first tourist hotel.
"Senator Jones travelled to New York City to negotiate with Union Pacific president, Jay Gould, for purchase of rails and rolling stock. Despite pressure by Southern Pacific for Gould not to cooperate, they were too late. By June, the pier was completed and the first ship landed. Rails were laid from Santa Monica to Los Angeles at a rapid pace.
"Collis P. Huntington, who was the principal owner of the Southern Pacific, next began to pressure shipping companies to allow only half their ships to dock at Santa Monica. Jones counterattacked by purchasing the Panama Railroad to gain leverage on Atlantic-Pacific trade as it crossed the narrow isthmus. He insisted that the Pacific Mail Steamship Company schedule regular stops at Santa Monica.
"Meanwhile the two partners [Baker and Jones] hired J.E. Jackson, a civil engineer to survey their townsite. It was initially a modest town that stretched eight blocks along the shore atop the bluffs just north of the railroad terminal, and inland twenty five blocks. They filed a subdivision map for their city with the county recorder on July 10, 1875.
"Advertisements announcing a land auction on Thursday July 15th were placed in Los Angeles and San Francisco newspapers. They boasted that Santa Monica was to be the site of two transcontinental railroads. Senator Jones hired Tom Fitch, a former Congressman and persuasive orator as auctioneer. Fitch stirred up enthusiasm in San Francisco and accompanied prospective buyers on one of two side-wheel steamers that left San Francisco in time to arrive at Santa Monica on the morning of the sale. Hundreds more eager investors traveled by carriage and stage over a crude road from Los Angeles to attend the sale.
"The crowd of nearly two thousand bidders converged at the foot of Wilshire Blvd., where Senator Jones had set up bleachers facing the bay. A makeshift tavern called Grand Palace Saloon was set up nearby and stocked with kegs of beer. After denying rumors that the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad was nothing more than a "paper" route and the city's title was in question, Senator Jones opened the bidding.
"The first parcel, now at the corner of Broadway and Ocean Av., started at $250, and sold for $510. Others on that block went for $300, while those further inland sold for as little as $75. By the end of the day $40,000 in lots were sold, and another $43,000 were auctioned off the following day.
"Work continued steadily on the railroad. A brass-trimmed locomotive accompanied by a string of flat cars and gondolas arrived by side-wheel steamer at the town's new pier in late September. It's maiden voyage on October 17, 1875 over ten miles of track took just 19 minutes. Travellers rode in open cars because of a shortage of passenger coaches, but the tremendous improvement over stagecoach times was worth the inconvenience. The train mostly hauled freight at a dollar a ton, but by December they had regular passenger service twice daily for a dollar fare.
"At first, Santa Monica sought to capitalize on its seaside location and blossoom into a commercial port. The new town experienced a building boom. By the end of the year there were more than one hundred buildings completed or under construction. The railroad brought quick prosperity, and weekend visitors spent freely on beach outings."