Raising the Sunken City

Recently, my friend and I decided to start a monthly urban exploration trip and began with an easy one, San Pedro's Sunken City. The Sunken City is a piece of land that once and for all proved the area's viability as a place of habitation by sliding off from the mainland at a pace of up to eleven inches a day, back in 1929.

Which is just mind-shearing, if you have any point of comparison.

What's left today is technically gated off and forbidden to enter, but is commonly trodden upon anyway by just about anybody who isn't in a wheelchair and wants to check it out. The area is littered with the upheaval remains of old slab foundations -and not an inch of those untagged- the odd streetcar track, broken beer bottles denoting the shitty tastes of the average trespasser, and of course the trespassers themselves. The area is highly uneven and you should expect a vigorous hike with some potential climbing if you choose to visit. The shoreline is well below even the most sunken areas, littered with a combination of natural formations and old slab foundation, and is one of the most scenic areas imaginable to take in shoreline waves.

What follows are roughly half the photos, the other half of which will be put up as soon as my friend stops dicking around and sends them to me. Also coming is a video of water cresting on a raised rock that I found rather catching. And next month; an old burnt-out hospital.

 

 

Way down on the shore, a piece of what we assumed was a patio at one point. A flat sheet of stone with inlaid rocks.

 

 

Hey look, I'm trying to get all fancy by shooting things through other things.

 

 

The less interrupted part of the foundation, closer to the still-inhabited area.

 

 

An old piece of streetcar rail, the only real visible one in the area.

 

 

Bits of natural rock formations mix in with the parts of the old city foundation that fell away from the mainland.

 

 

A solid line of foundation creates a jagged path up the slope toward this low summit. At some parts you really have to build up momentum and run to get up there. My angle doesn't do it justice.

 

 

The area is considered unstable and technically off-limits, but squeezing through the gate is simple, it's unpatrolled, and there are typically a good number of people hiking about.