Southern California Urbex

This railroad is an open secret with SoCal residents, and most people have hiked parts of it at least once. Which made the lack of information out there so much more interesting, as it took about thirty minutes to find a reliable source for this post.

This railroad was first conceived by John D. Spreckels, who was awarded the charter to begin construction on the line in 1906, which began the next year. It was dubbed “The Impossible Railroad” by engineers who worked on it, because of the rough terrain and the difficult route through the Jacumba Mountains.

It was a connecting railroad for the Southern Pacific Railway, rather than going north or to Santa Fe. The original cost of the railway was quoted at 6 million (in 1906) but by completion in 1919, it had cost over 18 million (126 million in today’s dollars). Mainly due to the difficulties of constructing the portion of the railroad that went through Carrizo Gorge. That portion of the railroad included 17 tunnels, with a combined length of almost 14,000 feet, it also included 2.5 miles of bridges and trestles, including the Goat Canyon trestle, which holds the current world record for the worlds largest wood pile trestle bridge.

Despite being built in the heyday of steel and iron, the Goat Canyon trestle was built out of red sequoia wood to combat the huge temperature differences that occur in the desert, which can lead to fatigue in metal spans. To prevent fires, it was built with an intricate system of pipes and sprinklers that are gravity fed from a tank uphill.  As a countermeasure against Goat Canyon’s notoriously high wind speeds, the bridge was built with a 14-degree curve.

The railroad serviced passenger and freight trains until 1951 when it became a fulltime rail line. Over time, barring periods when the line was damaged, it was used on and off by freight trains before traffic on the line was stopped in 1983, when the line was damaged in a hurricane. Service didn’t resume until 2003 but was again embargoed in 2008 for a project to restore the line.

Financed by a Baja Rail, it is the most well-funded group to attempt this, however, the first 11 years were mostly spent assessing the line, and work is just starting to begin.

Today, the Carrizo Gorge railroad is often hiked because of the numerous abandoned sets of train cars, which make for amazing photography. The hike there is difficult, and I highly recommend attempting it in the winter with a fairly large group, at least four people, with plenty of supplies, and 24-hour gear. Be careful though, because the line is becoming more and more frequently policed by railway cops.

Quaerere, Disce, Scribo.

What is it like blogging about things that are not exactly legal?

To be frank, it’s a little intimidating. Gathering information often requires me to go to sketchy hidden websites, finding photos is often a stressful task when trying to avoid downloading viruses, any real-world work I do involves breaking at least three laws. Urban Exploration is a dangerous & risky passion. When entering a location you never quite know if you’re going to make it out. Floors could collapse beneath you, roofs could cave in, let alone if the building still has active electricity, then every puddle becomes a risk, any metal surface potentially lethal. It’s not a hobby for the weak of stomach.

This blog is an expression of part of who I am, I love exploring, and blogging about it has been amazing, getting to inform others about something that I have a passion for. the writing comes naturally for me, sharing the history of places long forgotten by living memory. Once I start writing, the words just sort of flow, like a river of the experiences of people long dead, a window into the lives of those who came before us.

This is why I treat my topic with reverence. I work hard in my writing and my research not to misrepresent or sully those who can no longer defend their legacies.

Because of this, my research process is lengthy and normally involves verification of stories through many different sources from Wikipedia, to forums, to old newspapers, this way, I can know that I am presenting you with the best information I have. To protect myself, I do all of this through VPN servers and fake accounts. It’s a slow and arduous process, but, cest la vie.

Finally, if you are looking to start your own blog, the one piece of advice I want to give you is: Write about something you are truly passionate about, something you love. If you write a blog about a topic that doesn’t, it will be obvious to both you and the reader, finding the motivation to write will be nigh impossible.

Quaerere, Disce, Scribo.

 

First built during WW1, it was last of 13 concrete ships built for the U.S. as an effort to reduce steel consumption. A modified design from the other ships, it served until 1923 in the U.S. Quartermaster Corps, until it was purchased by the Associated Oil Company and was repurposed as an oil tanker under the name SS McKittrick.

There it worked as an oil tanker for 9 years but then was purchased by Ed. V. Turner Marvin Schouweiler. These absolute mad lads converted the oil tanker into a hub of gambling, partying, and prostitution,  then renamed her the Monte Carlo and anchored her as close to the Long Beach shore as they could while still being in international waters for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

Post Olympics, she was moved to the coast off of Coronado Island, where she continued to serve as a hub for all things fun and illegal, but on New Years Day, 1937, the Monte Carlo’s anchor lost hold during a storm and she drifted onto the beach in front of the El Camino Tower. Because of the extremely illegal nature of the ship, no one claimed her, and so she sat untouched there, where she remains to this day.

Today, the SS Monte Carlo is only visible after storms or during extremely low tide and is slowly being eaten away by the sea. However, it has been speculated that up to $120,000 in gold and silver coin sits somewhere onboard the vessel, so treasure hunt at your own risk.

 

Founded in 1910, this popular urbex site has a record of being one of the most haunted abandoned places in the world. It also was just 3 short miles from where I grew up.

The original building was a 2 story wooden building, a tuberculosis ward for about 50 people. Built off in the woods to minimize the possibility of passerbys of getting infected. It served for about 20 years in the wooden state, before being expanded into a massive 5 story brick and stone building, capable of holding about 400 patients at a time.

One of the sanatorium’s biggest claims to fame is the “Body Chute.” Originally constructed so that workers would not have to climb the steep hill, the 500 ft tunnel extended from the first floor down to the bottom of the hill. But during the worst parts of the various TB outbreaks, the deaths were so frequent, they installed an electric cart in the tunnel and used it to transport the bodies, away from the eyes of the other patients to keep morale high. The other is the draining room, where bodies were hung on meat hooks with holes drilled in their feet so all the fluids would drain out.

Another claim to fame for the sanatorium is the gruesome experiments carried out there. In the TB days, doctors tried everything from surgically implanting balloons in the lungs, to removing ribs and muscle tissue around the lungs. Other treatments, like hydrotherapy, almost always led to pneumonia and death.

(This was one of the key moments in the development of our modern “death denial” but that’s a different topic for a different blog)

With the development of pharmaceuticals that treated TB, the sanatorium slowly closed down, and it closed in June of 1961. It opened a year later as Woodhaven Geriatric Center, a center for the elderly with dementia, end of life care, and for anyone with serious mental diseases.

Woodhaven closed in 1982 after overcrowding and rumors of patient mistreatment. It has sat abandoned ever since, though it is opened up every Halloween for a haunted house.