Alan Weeks Collection
A pair of Pacific Electric PCC cars head southbound over the Glendale Line's trestle-bridge spanning the still-wild / as-yet-not-concrete Los Angeles River in this image dated October 15, 1949.
Alan Weeks Collection
Western District
Crossing the Los Angeles River
Lorenzo Boido
July 30, 2011
Notice one tower of the Hyperion Viaduct at the left.
http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/lariver/los-feliz/glendale-blvd.html
(don’t bother with the video)
Elson Trinidad
October 15, 2011
Actually the river was already channelized in concrete by 1949. The train in the picture hasn’t yet crossed the river; that’s just an vacant patch of land along the river side. The river is out of the range of the picture, beyond the left side of the image.
It couldn’t be the river that the train is crossing, since 1) The tracks are too low at that point and could be taken out easily by a flood; 2) The actual L.A. River in that area is always flowing with water (and therefore never had a concrete bottom) due to being close to the water table.
Alan Miller
April 24, 2012
The river is to the left. The bridge was plate girder on huge concrete piers, which are still there in April 2012.