Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge

Built in 1913 (modern architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. 15 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1896.

From the record

“The Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge is a historic double-tracked arch bridge in Torrance, California, U.S. It spans Torrance Boulevard at Bow Avenue, a short distance west of Western Avenue.”
Wikipedia article Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 616 National Register listings published here for Los Angeles County · listed in 1989 · category: Structure · built in 1913, modern architecture, by Irving Gill.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Torrance Blvd. and Bow St., Torrance, 90501
When was it listed? July 1989
Category. structure
Census division. Torrance
When was it built? 1913
Architectural style. modern architecture
Architect. Irving Gill
National Register reference number. 89000854 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1896 to 1901

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 5 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge, surveyed 1901

Topographic sheet covering Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge, surveyed 1896

Fires near this property

202 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 202 fires within 5 miles of Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge between 2005 and 2020, burning about 106 acres in total. None started naturally. 13 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	117
Smoking	32
Equipment and vehicle use	16
Arson/incendiarism	13
Misuse of fire by a minor	12
Debris and open burning	10
Recreation and ceremony	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
8 September 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
8 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
5 September 2011	Smoking	under an acre	Los Angeles County Fire Department	not named
4 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
26 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
24 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
22 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named

Every fire recorded in Los Angeles County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 23 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 23 workings within 5 miles of Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge: 18 past producers, 2 occurrences, 2 producers, 1 plant. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Clay, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silica, Titanium, Metal. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Burdick Minerals Corp.	Titanium, Lead	Past Producer
Unnamed Quarry	Lead, Silver, Zinc	Past Producer
Diatomaceous Earth Deposit	Diatomite	Occurrence
Dicalite	Diatomite	Occurrence
Clifton	Titanium, Metal	Producer
Clifton-Redondo Placer	Titanium, Metal	Producer	Ilmenite
Torrance B Plant Ti	Titanium, Metal	Plant
Caswell & Co.	Silica	Past Producer
Lawrence I. Liston Co.-Madrona Ave	Silica	Past Producer
Miller Bros. Truck Co.- Vollmer Pit	Silica	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Los Angeles County

Maps showing this location

15 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1896 USGS Redondo quadrangle1:62500 - 9 printings
1901 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1924 USGS Torrance quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1934 USGS Torrance quadrangle1:20000
1934 USGS Torrance quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1943 USGS San Pedro quadrangle1:125000
1944 USGS Redondo quadrangle1:62500
1949 USGS Long Beach quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1951 USGS Torrance quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS Long Beach quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1958 USGS Long Beach quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS Long Beach quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1964 USGS Torrance quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1981 USGS Long Beach quadrangle1:100000 - 3 printings

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Main Building	0.7 miles	1983
Home Economics Building	0.7 miles	1983
Auditorium	0.7 miles	1983
Torrance School	0.8 miles	1983
Fern Avenue School	1.2 miles	1992
Mirlo Gate Lodge Tower	3.7 miles	2019

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 89000854 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Los Angeles County	All 616 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.