Los Angeles River
The Los Angeles River (Spanish: Río de Los Ángeles), historically known as Paayme Paxaayt (West River) by the Tongva and the Río Porciúncula (Porciúncula River) by the Spanish, is a major river in Los Angeles County, California. Its headwaters are in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and it flows nearly 51 miles (82 km) from Canoga Park through the San Fernando Valley, Downtown Los Angeles, and the Gateway Cities to its mouth in Long Beach, where it flows into San Pedro Bay. While the river was once free-flowing and frequently flooding, forming alluvial flood plains along its banks, it is currently notable for flowing through a concrete channel on a fixed course, which was built after a series of devastating floods in the early 20th century.
Los Angeles River
Spanish: Río de Los Ángeles
Paayme Paxaayt (Tongva)
Confluence of Bell Creek and Arroyo Calabasas
794 ft (242 m)
0 ft (0 m)
47.9 mi (77.1 km)[2]
827 sq mi (2,140 km2)[3]
226 cu ft/s (6.4 m3/s)[3]
2 cu ft/s (0.057 m3/s)
129,000 cu ft/s (3,700 m3/s)
Before the opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the river was the primary source of fresh water for the city. Although the Los Angeles region still receives some water from the river and other local sources, most of the water supply flows from several aqueducts serving the area. The Los Angeles River is heavily polluted from agricultural and urban runoff.
Fed primarily by rainwater and snowmelt (in winter and spring), the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys (in summer and fall), and urban discharge, it is one of the few low-elevation perennial rivers in Southern California. Some water usually reaches the ocean, even in the driest summers; although there are historical accounts of the river running dry, there has been constant flow of the river every month since recording of stream flow began in 1929.[3] This is helped by the concrete channel, which limits absorption of water into the earth. Flow, while generally low in volume, can be extremely brisk even in summer.
Numerous films, television programs, music videos, commercials and video games have featured various sites along the Los Angeles River. Since the river is a trickle for much of the year and the culvert is dry, it is often used as a setting for races, car chases, gang rumbles, and other scenes requiring an open, deserted setting within the city.
The following have scenes filmed or set within the culvert:
The river is featured in Visiting... with Huell Howser Episode 218.[73]
TV series highlighting the river include The Beverly Hillbillies, Knight Rider , CHiPs, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, American Horror Story: Apocalypse, the fifteenth season of The Amazing Race, as well as the seventh, sixteenth season of Hell's Kitchen, and The Stranger.
The following music videos have included sections filmed in the river:
Video games include the racing game series Midnight Club with Midnight Club 2 and Midnight Club: Los Angeles and the action-adventure games Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V (both of which feature depictions of the river within the fictional city of Los Santos).
The house used for exterior shots of Brady's home in the sitcom The Brady Bunch at 11222 North Dilling Street in North Hollywood, has the bank of the river as the edge of its backyard.
Channel cut through Dominguez lands by a flood on the Los Angeles River, about 1500 feet north of Watson station, 1916
The mouth of the Los Angeles River in 1937, in the foreground; the Back Channel, Port of Long Beach, in the background
Interstate 5, the Golden State Freeway. Glendale is on the right, Silver Lake is on the left. The Los Angeles River runs through the middle.
A paved river and railroads lead into downtown Los Angeles.
