in 1887 William Randolph Hearst took over the San Francisco Examiner. One of the big showy events that he staged, was commissioning a balloon to take high altitude photographs to show images that no one had ever seen before.
This is the 1887 aerial taken from the examiner balloon of downtown los angeles.
some amazing sights in this aerial;
The downtown triangle formed by alameda, main and 2nd streets
the los angeles river is running past downtown in it's unadulterated natural state
The wolfskill grove is still in it's full citrus rural beauty between san pedro, alameda,3rd and 9th.
The Los Angeles School building is sitting proudly on it's newly relocated to fort moore hill site
The courthouse site on poundcake hill, (where the school building formerly was), shows that it has been cleared and the courthouse construction is about to begin.
down broadway from the courthouse site between 2nd and 3rd, the city hall building is nearing completion.
crocker mansion is clearly visible at 3rd and olive
the bradbury mansion is visible at court street and hill
the melrose and reichlieu are visible on grand street between 2nd and 1st., (grand street seems to have a break just north of the melrose to court street...???!!!)
looking left of the school building on sunset, that looks like it could be our porch heavy friend 601 sunset
the westminster is visible at 4th and main
and most amazing, if you begin just east of the plaza, looking diagonally downwars to the right, (north west), you can clearly make out the elevation contour of fort moore and bunker hill. you can also see how new high street parallels this contour which is the angle that the hall of records was set at!