Santa Monica State Beach
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Santa Monica State Beach is a California State Park operated by the city of
Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...
.


Description

The beach is located along Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica. It is long and has parks, picnic areas, playgrounds, restrooms, as well as staffed lifeguard stations, the
Muscle Beach Muscle Beach is the birthplace of the United States physical fitness boom, which started in 1934 with predominantly gymnastics activities on the south side of the Santa Monica Pier. Muscle Beach Venice is the contemporary title of the outdoor we ...
, bike rentals, concessions, a few hotels, a bike path, and wooden pathways for warm days and beachgoers with disabilities. Visitor activities include volleyball, surfing, stand up paddleboarding, and swimming. Smoking at the beach is prohibited. At the foot of Colorado Avenue, through the famous arch and sign, lies the historic
Santa Monica Pier The Santa Monica Pier is a large double-jointed pier at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California, United States. It contains a small amusement park, concession stands, and areas for views and fishing. Attractions Pacific Park Th ...
, which dates from 1909. The pier has a National Historic Landmark -– the 1922 Looff Hippodrome Carousel. Just south of the pier volleyball courts is International Chess Park with public chess tables and a human-scale chessboard set into the sidewalk. Palisades Park is located atop Santa Monica's cliffs, providing a vantage point to see the Santa Monica Beach and the Pacific Ocean. The beach is the one in the album art for Umbrella Beach by
Owl City Owl City is an American electronic music project created in 2007 in Owatonna, Minnesota. It is one of several projects by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young, who created the project while experimenting with music in his pa ...
features. The beach will host
beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...
and
surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...
during the
2028 Summer Olympics The 2028 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, also known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA28) is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from July 14 to July 30, 2028, in and around Los Angeles, Cali ...
.


"Ink Well"

A section of the beach was referred to as "Ink Well" and "
Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...
Beach" in the early 20th century when it was one of the few areas in California where
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
were allowed to enjoy beach access in a largely segregated society. Other areas for blacks were
Bruce's Beach Bruce's Beach was an African-American beach resort at Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles County, California. The property, which was located at 26th Street and Highland Avenue, was owned and operated by Charles and Willa Bruce for the benefit of t ...
in Manhattan Beach and the Pacific Beach Club in
Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...
.
Nick Gabaldon Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Pla ...
, one of the first black surfers in California, lived in Santa Monica, and used the 200 foot roped off stretch of beach demarcated for blacks. He died after crashing into the
Malibu Pier Malibu may refer to: Places * Malibu, California, a United States city **Malibu High School ** Malibu Lake **Malibu Creek * Malibu, British Columbia, a locality in Canada * Baja Malibu, a beach in Rosarito Beach Municipality, Baja California, Mex ...
.


Arlington West

Arlington West Arlington West is a series of projects in coastal California intended to draw public attention to, and to open a discourse on the subject of both military and civilian deaths during the invasion and occupation of Iraq in the early 21st century. T ...
was a temporary memorial created on Santa Monica Beach just north of the Santa Monica Pier at Santa Monica, every Sunday from sunrise to sunset. Crosses are placed on the beach for each U.S. military person who has died in the Iraq War. The number of crosses erected every Sunday now exceeds 4,000. For military personnel killed within the week past, flag draped coffins with blue crosses are positioned in front. The Arlington West Memorial, a project of Veterans For Peace, is intended to offer visitors a graceful, visually and emotionally powerful, place for reflection.


Wildlife

Snowy Plover The snowy plover (''Charadrius nivosus'') is a small wader in the plover bird family, typically about 5-7" in length. It breeds in the southern and western United States, the Caribbean, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. Long considered to be a subspecie ...
s nest on the beach. The
California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, commonly referred to as OEHHA (pronounced oh-EEE-ha), is a specialized department within the cabinet-level California Environmental Protection Agency ( CalEPA) with responsibility for evaluatin ...
(OEHHA) has developed a safe eating advisory for fish caught in the Santa Monica Beach based on levels of mercury or
PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...
found in local species.


Gallery of Santa Monica Beach images

Image:Santa Monica State Beach P4060277.jpg, View from ocean Image:Santa Monica State Beach P4060275.jpg, View from ocean Image:Santa Monica Beach 2.jpg, Santa Monica Beach Image:LAVisitApril2005 019.jpg, Lifeguard tower Image:Casa del Mar Santa Monica.jpg, Casa Del Mar Hotel Image:Santa Monica Beach.JPG, Santa Monica Beach Image:SantaMonicaBeachSign.jpg, Informational sign Image:SantaMonica-Pier-1880.jpg, On the beach 1880 Image:SantaMonica-1890.1.jpg, Santa Monica Beach 1890 Image:Arcadia-Hotel-SantaMonica-1890.2.jpg, Arcadia Hotel 1890 Image:Santa monica beach 1908.jpg, Santa Monica Beach 1908 Image:SantaMonica-1915.jpg, Steps down the palisades 1915


See also

*
List of beaches in California This list of California beaches is a list of beaches that are situated along the coastline of the State of California, USA. North to South The beaches are listed in order from north to south, and are grouped by county. The list includes all of ...
*
List of California state parks This is a list of parks, historic resources, reserves and recreation areas in the California State Parks system. List of parks See also *California State Beaches *List of California State Historic Parks * Parks in California * California Depa ...
*
Santa Monica Pier Aquarium Heal the Bay Aquarium, which was previously named the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, is a private-public aquarium at a California State Beach Park managed by Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors, located beneath the Santa Monica P ...
 — Aquarium on the pier operated by
Heal the Bay Heal the Bay is a U.S. environmental advocacy group of activists based in Santa Monica, California. The focus is protecting coastal waters and watersheds of southern California, and is focused on Santa Monica Bay. Heal the Bay is a 501(c)(3) n ...
, and formerly known as the Ocean Discovery Center *
Pacific Park Pacific Park is an oceanfront amusement park located in Santa Monica, California. The park, located on the Santa Monica Pier, looks directly out on the Pacific Ocean, in the direction of Catalina Island. It is the only amusement park directly l ...
 — the amusement park portion of the pier *
Hot Dog on a Stick Hot Dog on a Stick is a fast food company that was founded by Dave Barham in Santa Monica, California, in 1946, and later branched out into malls and shopping centers. In 2014, the company was purchased by Global Franchise Group (the strategi ...
 — original, opened in 1946, found on the sidewalk just south of the pier in front the original
Muscle Beach Muscle Beach is the birthplace of the United States physical fitness boom, which started in 1934 with predominantly gymnastics activities on the south side of the Santa Monica Pier. Muscle Beach Venice is the contemporary title of the outdoor we ...
*
Pacific Ocean Park Pacific Ocean Park was a nautical-themed amusement park built on a pier at Pier Avenue in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica, California in 1958. Intended to compete with Disneyland, it replaced Ocean Park Pier (1926-1956). After it closed ...
 — former (1958-1967) amusement park one pier south of Santa Monica Pier; demolished in 1974 *
Santa Monica bicycle path The Marvin Braude Bike Trail (also known as the Beach Bike Path, Coastal Bike Trail, The Strand, or the South Bay Bicycle Trail ) is a paved bicycle path that runs mostly along the shoreline of Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles County, California ...
 — path that runs through a bicycle-only underpass under the pier *
Membership discrimination in California social clubs Membership discrimination in California social clubs has been based on sex, race, religion, political views and social standing. In the late 1980s, a successful effort was made in many of the clubs to open up membership first to racial or religio ...


Notes


External links


City of Santa Monica: official Santa Monica State Beach website California State Parks: official Santa Monica State Beach website

LAMountains.com: Santa Monica State Beach
{{Protected Areas of California, SP Beaches of Southern California Santa Monica, California California State Beaches Parks in Los Angeles County, California Tourist attractions in Santa Monica, California Beaches of Los Angeles County, California Venues of the 2028 Summer Olympics Olympic volleyball venues Olympic surfing venues