Lower Playa del Rey was originally
wetlands and sand dune soil, but natural flooding was halted by levees made of earthen soil, boulders and reinforced concrete with a soft-bottom submerged soil that promotes both tidal flow in good weather and facilitated the flow of freshwater into the ocean in rainy weather, resulting in a dynamic estuarine river known as
Ballona Creek. The wetlands area were inhabited by the
Tongva came to the wetlands three to five thousand years ago. The area was important for fishing and shellfish harvesting. The usage of wooden plank boats known as ''
te'aats'' were used to paddle out to the
Channel Islands.
Guashna was the major village in the area and was an important regional trade center. In the 1870s, Playa Del Rey was the location of the first attempt at a dredged harbor in
Santa Monica Bay. Under contract with the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, Moye Wicks' syndicate spent $300,000 to dredge
Port Ballona Harbor, for shipping to the Orient. Within three years, winter waves brought flooding, but what remained of man's early efforts became the Del Rey Lagoon, now a municipal public park. , built in 1922 in a
Spanish Colonial Revival style. In 1902, buyers interested in land at the new Playa Del Rey development were instructed to travel by
streetcar to
Alla Station where “
tally-hos” awaited them. The new development eventually got its own
streetcar stop on the
Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey Line beginning from the
Ivy Station. In 1910, the Playa del Rey Motordome was built, the first board track in the world; it was used for bike and also early auto racing.
Palisades del Rey was the name of the original 1921 neighborhood land development by Dickinson & Gillespie Co. that later came to be called Playa del Rey. The company advertised this area of sand dunes as the last stretch of coastal land in the city of Los Angeles to be developed. All of the houses in this area were custom built, many as beach homes owned by Hollywood actors and producers, including
Cecil B. Demille,
Charles Bickford, and others. Construction in Playa del Rey surged in 1928 with the development of the Del Rey Hills neighborhood in the Eastern part of the community (to the East of Pershing Drive), and the move of Loyola University (now
Loyola Marymount University) to the adjacent community of Westchester. The southern portion of the original Playa del Rey development, which came to be known as
Surfridge, is now vacant. Between 1966 and 1975, the houses that were once there were either moved or demolished to facilitate the expansion of
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and to address concerns about the noise of increasing jet plane traffic. The noise from the flights made it less desirable to live on the dunes above the ocean under the LAX flight path. The City of Los Angeles condemned the southern section of Playa del Rey under the power of
eminent domain and purchased all of the homes. Today, one can see only barbed-wire fences protecting vacant land and old streets where houses once sat. Recent LAX rejuvenation plans call for the city to finally remove the old streets that still line the empty neighborhood. The condemned areas of the community are now a protected habitat of the endangered
El Segundo blue butterfly. Playa del Rey in the 1950s and early 1960s was known as a great Los Angeles area
surf spot, but due to the many rock
jetties that were built to prevent
beach erosion, the good surf has mostly disappeared. The construction of Marina Del Rey, which involved the hardening of the Ballona Creek mouth and the addition of a massive breakwater shielding the harbor from ocean storms, dramatically altered wave patterns in the area. Compared to other nearby beaches, the areas immediately North and South of the Marina Breakwater are steeply sloped and waves tend to crash in very shallow water very close to shore. The beach at the northernmost end of Playa del Rey is still known as Toes Over Beach, Toes Beach, or just "Toes" by the local surfing community, a name derived from the toes-over or
hang ten surfing maneuver. Most surfers now flock south of
Dockweiler Beach to
El Porto (the northernmost part of beach in the city of
Manhattan Beach) or north of Marina del Rey to
Venice Beach. The lifeguard and park services are uniform across the entire stretch of beach. One danger for beachgoers is the uncontrolled water runoff from the creek, and the occasional emergency overflow from the giant
Hyperion treatment plant to the south. Under normal conditions, the plant discharges treated water out to sea, but a rarely used outflow pipe exists for emergencies or during maintenance. Wastewater discharged from this shorter pipe is close enough to shore to severely impact beach conditions when it is in use. Locals refer to the small area of housing closest to the beach, where Culver Boulevard joins Vista del Mar, as "The Jungle," a nickname given to a group of closely built 1956 apartments bounded by Trolley Place and Trolleyway Street on its east and west respectively, and including the streets Fowling, Rees, Sunridge and Surf. The small sidewalks between homes had/have deep green overgrowth, which added to the name. Today, the Pacific Avenue Bridge between Playa Del Rey and the jetty between Ballona Creek and the Marina is accessible to foot traffic and bicycle traffic, but not to automobiles. Bikers, skaters and joggers can cross this bridge to continue north to Santa Monica, and to the South Bay. It is the only pedestrian crossing over Ballona Creek between the ocean and
Centinela Avenue, and the
Lincoln Boulevard and
Marina Freeway bridges both lack sidewalks. Both the
University of California, Los Angeles and
Loyola Marymount University have
crew teams that practice on the Ballona Creek channel and in Marina del Rey. ==Geography==