The Los Angeles skyline has quietly
become one of the tallest city
skylines in America.

When you think about prominent city skylines, places like New York or Chicago come to mind. However, the Los Angeles skyline has dramatically shot upward over the past 30 years and is actually taller (on average) than the skylines of San Francisco or Seattle. There are 21 skyscrapers taller than 500 feet in L.A. compared to just 17 in San Francisco and only 13 in Seattle. In fact, the tallest building west of the Mississippi River (not counting the observation Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas) is found in Los Angeles. It is more than 1,000 feet high.

View of the Los Angeles, California skyline. The tallest building pictured is the U.S. Bank Tower. It is 73 stories high and 1,018 feet tall (the tallest office building west of the Mississippi River).

Wide angle view of downtown Los Angeles. Of course, you can see the infamous layer of smog that frequently hangs over the city (although it is not as bad as it once was).

The city is known more for it's many Los Angeles tourist attractions than it is for it's skyline. There are more amusement parks in the L.A. area than in any other city in the country. Places like the world-famous Disneyland Resort , Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studios Hollywood, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and the Hollywood and Movieland Wax Museums are located here. The "City of Angels" as it is known is the king of the California tourism industry.

View of the Los Angeles downtown area at dusk.

The city of L.A. comes alive after dark with lights radiating for many miles in all directions.

Los Angeles is also the location of the most extensive freeway system in the world. Those famous L.A. freeways move very slowly much of the time due to the many millions of people who travel them each day and call this area home. The population of greater Los Angeles (which includes the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino) is more than 17 million people. And that doesn't count the San Diego area which has another 3 million inhabitants (more than 5 million if you count neighboring Tijuana). The only other place in the U.S. with metropolitan totals like that is New York City.

Traveling on the 101 Freeway through downtown Los Angeles.

Looking up at some of the tallest skyscrapers on the west coast.

Los Angeles photographs are among those featured on my photo disc.

Nighttime view of the downtown L.A. towers. This is one of the few images shown on this website which was captured with a digital compact camera.

Finding a good spot to photograph the Los Angeles skyline is not difficult. One of the best locations to view it from is the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park. At night, the lights of the city seem to stretch to infinity. There are other good locations where you can capture interesting and unique pictures of Los Angeles as well. You can seek out your own great photographic locations in between exploring the many Los Angeles tourist attractions.

Front of the famous Griffith Observatory building. Behind the observatory (which sits on a hill) are walkways where you can view the Los Angeles skyline and capture great photographs.

No visit to Los Angeles would be complete without a stop at Disneyland.

Another great place to visit is the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park (or the Hollywood Wax Museum). It is very easy to spend many hours looking at the large number of life-like wax displays.

One more look at the downtown Los Angeles skyline (once again taken with a digital compact camera).







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