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Los Angeles CaliforniaINTRODUCTION Los Angeles or L.A. is known as the entertainment capital of the United States and possibly even the world. L.A. and its surrounding cities are the base of operation for many American film, television, and music studios. Because of this many of America’s creative types reside here giving L.A. a reputation for colorful and sometimes controversial extravagance in everything from art to fashion. Los Angeles is the second largest city in the United States population wise, and the largest land wise, which makes it a bit complex. The districts of L.A. are: Downtown L.A.?, East L.A.?, South L.A.?,Harbor Area?, Hollywood?, Wilshire?, Westside?,San Fenando Valley? ("the Valley"), and Crescenta?. Within these districts lie many of the more famous areas or neighborhoods of the city, such as Bel-Air which is located in the Westside district. L.A. is so large in fact that it has annexed other towns, like Hollywood, into becoming part of the city of Los Angeles proper. It also surrounds other cities like Beverly Hills, which is in L.A., but technically its own city. HISTORY The Los Angeles area was home to many Native American groups for thousands of years until the arrival of Europeans in 1542. It was officially set up as a town in 1777 by the Spanish who then controlled the area. In 1821 New Spain, which Los Angeles was a part of, gained independence from the Spanish Empire, making Los Angeles a part of Mexico. American’s took control of California in 1847 after defeating Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Los Angeles and California in general began to grow during the gold rush era of the 1850’s. But it was William Mulholland’s completion of an aqueduct in 1913 that really allowed Los Angeles to develop into an important city in the very dry region of Southern California. In the 1920’s the motion picture and aviation industries made the move to Los Angeles in order to capitalize on the regions seemingly never ending space. This is what eventually thrust Los Angeles into the international spot light. KNOW BEFORE YOU GO L.A. has one of the largest freeway systems in the world. This is because it is the most car-populated metro area in the world. L.A. also, (seemingly unbeknownst to some of the locals) has a subway, rail, and a bus system that covers much of the Los Angeles area. ATTRACTIONS RESTAURANTS LODGING 
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