Echo Mountain

Downtown LA and the surrounding basin as seen from atop Echo Mtn.

The LA basin as seen from atop Echo Mtn.

Motorized drive wheels of the rails service pit for the old Mt. Lowe Railway.

Looking up at Inspiration Point from Echo Mtn.

San Gabriel Valley.  That is Mt. San Jacinto in the distance there to the left. 

    More pics of Echo Mtn.

Westminister Presbyterian Church.  Following the Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987, I worked with a small construction crew in October of that year repairing the damage to this church. Our task was not complicated or dangerous.  We worked mostly to replace tiles in the walls and pieces in the stained glass windows.  We also repaired the pewter frame of the windows.  But there was a father and son team that came into replace tiles on the roof the church.  The scaffolding, which reached all the way up to the ceiling, consisted of a top rail and a middle rail.  The dad stood with one foot on the middle rail, bracing his position, while putting his other foot on the top rail.  He still had to stretch his arm as he plastered the ceiling.  It was a spectacle.  The guy had remarkable balance and it was he who did the work to set the puddy and replace the tile.  All of us construction workers on the ground did move.  Our gaze was fixed on the man straddling the top rung of the scaffold, and then reaching up over his head to replace the tiles in the ceiling.  It was both nerve wracking and remarkable.