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Urban History Of La

Introduction
Los Angeles was originally a small farming community. The city was named by its first settlers, and translates from Spanish as “The Angels”. What was once a small farming community is today one of the most recognizable cities in the world, attracting incredible amounts of curious tourists, aspiring actors and actresses, hopeful musicians, and more. While Los Angeles has gained somewhat of a fantasy-filled aura, it has proven to be much more than just that. The history of Los Angeles is composed of metropolitan development that has gone through serious economic and social makeovers, ranging from the California gold rush of the early 20th century to the property boom that turned Los Angeles into the real estate paradise it is today.
Admitted into the Union as the 31st state in 1850, California was not a hotbed for commercial activity until the famous gold rush of the mid-1800s. At the time, Los Angeles was incorporated and become the central city of the Los Angeles County. When the gold rush reached its peak and subsequently drove the state into a massive economic recession in 1854, the population of Los Angeles was a meager 2,300. However, once the rail line was extended into an isolated Los Angeles County, the city began to bloom due to the transport of human capital with the growth of the orange industry. Los Angeles soon became a center for the orange industry with major clusters of groves. This was a sign of urbanization and localization economies. Since the advantages of orange cultivation were internal to the industry and external to the firm, many firms decided to location there and enjoy the spoils of the industry.
Similarly, with the introduction of the rail line into Los Angeles in 1876, there was a great availability of labor and thus inexpensive, providing urbanization economies or the orange grove industry. By 1889, California had accumulated 130,000 acres of orange grove plantations. Even today, California is one of the...