Downtown underground

This is the tunnel identified in the KTLA episode about "underground downtown" LA featuring Esotouric's Richard Schave. This is a tunnel which was part of a famous speakeasy in the John Fante novel, "Ask The Dust" (1939), and can currently be found underneath the King Edward Saloon, in a basement not open to the general public.

Learn more about Richard Schave's research into forgotten Los Angeles history at http://www.esotouric.com

A pair of tunnels were built under 5th Street in 1923 to connect the Rosslyn Hotel with its new Annex. One tunnel was a luxurious guest walkway, lined with marble. The other was a utility tunnel, that also had a pneumatic tube system for messages and money. A scandal at the old City Hall broke out about the building permit approvals for these tunnels.

This disused Pacific Electric subway tunnel starts in an inaccessible area beneath the Subway Terminal Building (now called Metro 417 Apartments) and dead ends at the Bonaventure Hotel--during construction, the foundations were sunk straight through the tunnel. The tunnel then continues west to the old Belmont Tunnel, now sealed, just opposite the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.

More photographs of this tunnel today:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157602055335538/with/1399817331/

From Blogdowntown.com, "World's Most Expensive Sidewalk" connects Pershing Square to City National Bank Tower via underground tunnel.

http://blogdowntown.com/2008/01/3079-time-makes-worlds-most-expensive-sidewalk

This short tunnel slopes down beneath the 6th Street bridge and leads straight into the LA River. It's the point where the Thunder Road car race begins in Grease (1978). The spectators stand on the concrete bank next to the mouth of the tunnel and watch the race take place in the riverbed below.

When Abbot Kinney built Venice in 1904-1905 he included utility tunnels beneath the alleys on either side of Windward Avenue and under Ocean Front Walk. The tunnels housed the pipes that brought salt and fresh water to the hotels lining Windward Avenue, and a tunnel also connected the Waldorf Hotel with the beach, allowing guests to go straight to the sand in their swimwear, which was prohibited on the Ocean Front Walk. During Prohibition, ships would bring liquor in via boat and use the tunnels to sneak it into speakeasies along Windward Avenue, such as Menotti's Buffet, now the Townhouse Bar.