Alameda Street is a major north-south thoroughfare in
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...
. It is approximately 21 miles in length, running from Harry Bridges Boulevard in
Wilmington; and through
Carson,
Compton,
Lynwood,
Watts
Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power.
Watts may also refer to:
People
*Watts (surname), a list of people with the surname Watts
Fictional characters
*Albie Watts, a fictional character in the British soap opera ''EastEnders''
*Angie ...
,
Florence-Graham,
Huntington Park,
Vernon and
Arts District to Spring and College in
Chinatown. For much of its length, Alameda runs through present and former industrial corridors, and is paralleled by
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...
(formerly
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
) tracks.
Route description
Downtown and Chinatown

Alameda Street runs on the east side of the
Old Plaza, Los Angeles, and once also ran along the westside of Old Chinatown. In the late 19th century, Alameda Street and Commercial Street were Los Angeles' original red-light district. South of Union Station, Alameda Street enters
Little Tokyo and the former Warehouse District, now the Arts District. At one time, a lot on Alameda and 8th was a haven for free-speech demonstrations.
South of Downtown
At 27th Street, Alameda Street splits into two roadways divided by the 10-mile (16 km)
Mid-Corridor Trench: a local roadway on the east and the main Alameda Street to the west. Here, Alameda Street intersects with
Slauson Avenue,
Florence Avenue,
Firestone Boulevard (former
SR 42) and
Imperial Highway. Each of these streets is grade-separated from the rail line. Though Alameda Street has interchanges with
I-10,
SR 91 and
I-405, it does not have an interchange with
I-105 near Watts.
California State Route 47
Alameda Street is designated California State Route 47 between the
California State Route 91 and Henry Ford Avenue. There are few at-grade crossings with other streets in this portion of Alameda, with
Artesia Boulevard, Del Amo Boulevard, Carson Street, 223rd Street (at the
San Diego Freeway/
I-405 interchange)
Sepulveda Boulevard, and
Pacific Coast Highway (
SR 1), all flying over Alameda while being connected to it with connector ramps. Alameda Street descends into a tunnel between California State 91 and Del Amo Boulevard, at which point the
Alameda Corridor crosses from the east to the west of Alameda.
South of Henry Ford Avenue, Alameda Street continues for another in Wilmington before ending at Harry Bridges Boulevard (formerly B Street).
Southern Pacific Railroad
Alameda Street has a long history of Southern Pacific Railroad tracks running on or parallel to it. Before the building of Union Station, Southern Pacific trains would travel along Alameda between
Naud Junction and the Southern Pacific
Arcade Station on 5th Street. Though Southern Pacific eventually rerouted its downtown tracks to the LA River, Alameda still carries SP tracks between 27th Street and the Port of Los Angeles. This area is known as the
Alameda Corridor. With the 2002 completion of the Alameda Corridor in a trench adjacent to Alameda, the trackage is now shared by the
BNSF Railway
BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...
and
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...
(Southern Pacific's company).
Los Angeles Union Station fronts onto Alameda Street.
History
The street is located on
Tongva
The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Channel Islands of California, Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . In the precolonial era, the peop ...
land. In the 1820s, historian William David Estrada records that immigrants from
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
came to Los Angeles in small numbers and settled around the Commercial and Alameda streets, close to the original village site of
Yaanga.
The street became a center of prostitution activity in Los Angeles by the late 19th century, after the city council passed an ordinance prohibiting prostitution from the new
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...
. Prostitution reportedly peaked in the 1890s, "with the support of local police and elected officials, many of whom were regular visitors" to the
brothel
A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...
s. Those on North Alameda Street, adjacent to the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
tracks, were the most active and became "the first view of Los Angeles for arriving train passengers."
In the late 19th century, the corner of Alameda Street and
Macy Street (now Cesar Chavez Avenue) was home to residences shared by Mexican and Chinese families. Along Alameda and Los Angeles Streets to Second Street was primarily a Japanese community, shared with Mexicans, and the last remnants of the French community.
Transit
Metro Local
The Los Angeles Metro Bus is the transit bus service in Los Angeles County, California, operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). Metro Bus operates in the Los Angeles Basin, the San Fernando Valley, and th ...
Line 202 runs along Alameda Street between Del Amo Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway. Metro Local Line 58 formerly served Alameda Street between Union Station and
Washington, but was discontinued in 2005.
Three
Metro A Line Stations are located on Alameda Street:
Little Tokyo/Arts District,
Union Station
A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...
, and
Chinatown, with the former-most also served by the
Metro E Line. Union Station is also served by the
B and
D lines, as well as
Metrolink and
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
.
References
{{Streets in Los Angeles
Streets in Los Angeles
Streets in Los Angeles County, California
Chinatown, Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles
Carson, California
Compton, California
Lynwood, California
Vernon, California
Watts, Los Angeles
Wilmington, Los Angeles