Domestic Trek: Los Angeles, California

Abstract

[Excerpt] On the first day of the Baker Program’s Los Angeles trek, students visited Tustin Legacy, a 1600-acre development that is among the largest undeveloped land in Southern California. This site was constructed and commissioned shortly after Pearl Harbor as a Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) facility to patrol the Pacific coastline with manned blimps. At one point, as many as 12 blimps operated from two hangars on the site. The hangars, two of the largest wooden structures ever built, are over seventeen stories high, 1,000 feet long and 300 feet wide. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the hangars are the only historical remnants of the site’s prior use. Their interior and exterior features have been showcased in film and television productions over several decades.