Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1878, 1877
"In March [1877], a group of railway men headed by Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific, together with representatives of the Southern Pacific, came to look over the communty and its railroad.
"In June, Central Pacific had acquired the Los Angeles and Independence, and immediately increased both rail and steamship passenger and freight rates. By the following year [1878], the Southern Pacific had control and removed the depot from the wharf where it had been, and placed it close to the present location of the city hall.
"The Southern Pacific engineers . . . pronounced the pier unsafe . . . and ordered its removal. The steamer Senator made its last call on September 9 and early in 1878 the pier was ordered removed. Efforts to pull the pilings failed, and they were chopped off at the water line."