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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

AMERICA'S FIRST MONORAIL WAS IN BURBANK

BUILDING A GREAT MUSEUM FOR THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

FAWKES FOLLY
America's First Great Monorail Experiment

In 1911, Joseph Fawkes who lived on West Olive Street in Burbank, launched the first monorail experiment in United States history. Fawkes, a wealthy farmer in the Valley, convinced some that his new machine would whisk passengers from Burbank to downtown Los Angeles in just over 10 minutes. To the everlasting delight of nay-sayers, the Aerial Swallow as Fawkes called it, collapsed and set back monorail exploration for years.

2 comments:

Steven Lester said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steven Lester said...

Well, it looks awfully flimsy to me. I'd hesitate to get in it to travel at any speed. It's unclear, also, what motive method it used. It's also almost impossible for me to imagine a single clod of dirt in Burbank these days, yet there it was.