Griffith Park
Coordinates: 34 ° 8 ′ N , 118 ° 18 ′ W
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Location in Los Angeles County |
The Griffith Park is a large park at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains in the district of Hollywood in Los Angeles . With an area of 17 km² it is one of the largest urban parks in North America and the second largest urban park in California after the Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego .
The founder of Griffith Park is Colonel Griffith, who in 1882 bought Rancho Los Feliz , located near the Los Angeles River , and initially set up an ostrich farm there. At that time, ostrich feathers were a popular material for making women's hats. The real raison d'etre for the ostrich farm, however, was to lure Los Angeles residents to the building lots, which Griffith also sold there. After the building boom had subsided, he donated twelve square kilometers of his area to the city of Los Angeles on December 16, 1896. Griffith was later sentenced to prison for aggravatedly assaulting his wife. After his release he tried to finance the construction of a planetarium , an observatory and an open-air theater in the park he had founded. However, due to its battered reputation, the city of Los Angeles refused to accept the money offered.
In 1912 Griffith dedicated another 40 hectares in the northwest part of the park, directly on the Los Angeles River, to "doing something to promote aviation". This is how the Griffith Park Aerodrome was created , which was later handed over to the National Guard Air Service . After Griffith's death in 1919, the city of Los Angeles began to gradually build the originally planned projects. The open-air theater, the so-called Greek Theater , was completed in 1930, the Griffith Observatory in 1935. Through further land donations and purchase agreements, the park gradually grew to its present size. The park is open from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
On October 3, 1933, the Griffith Park forest fire broke out . 29 firefighters died in this forest fire. It is one of the worst fire fighting accidents in United States history.
Within the park is Mount Lee , which is 521 meters high . Its southern slope is the location of the world-famous Hollywood Sign . The eastern part of the Mulholland Highway runs below the lettering . Mount Lee itself is private and not open to the public.
Since 2012, the park has been home to a male puma (Puma concolor) who immigrated from the Santa Monica Mountains .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Scott Harrison: "Remembering the 1933 Griffith Park fire disaster" , at www.latimes.com on May 10, 2015, accessed on June 22, 2017
- ↑ Douglas Chadwick: Ghost Cats. In: National Geographic Magazine , December 2013. pp. 64-83. Accessed January 15, 2015
- ↑ Linda Qiu: New Pictures of Hollywood Cougar Show Sleeker, Healthier Cat. In: National Geographic Magazine, December 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2015.