An Idea That Was Hard for L.A. to Swallow

In urban transit, no less than life, what goes around comes around--eventually.

Consider, for example, that icon of futuristic mass transit, the monorail. Long a staple of science fiction novels and the virtual symbol of Disneyland’s popular Tomorrowland, the elevated bullet train is once again a hot topic in Los Angeles’ turbulent transit circles.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich wants to scrap plans to build a subway across the San Fernando Valley and throw up a monorail in the Ventura Freeway’s median. Mayor Richard Riordan, who abandoned his support for a monorail in favor of the subway, now has come full circle and favors the supervisor’s proposal.

What they may not realize is that their forward-looking solution to the Valley’s mass transit problems is, in fact, among the oldest ever proposed.

Nearly a century ago, amid the bountiful apricot orchards of Burbank, a visionary and farmer named Joseph Wesley Fawkes pondered the problem of linking his growing area with downtown. What Fawkes imagined was a future that ran through the air on one rail.

By 1910, he had built a contraption that he dubbed the Aerial Swallow and claimed would haul 50 to 55 passengers at speeds up to 60 mph. But the propeller-driven vehicle quickly became known as Fawkes’ Folly when it achieved a top speed of only 3 mph on its maiden voyage, and then fell apart.

Locals called the Swallow’s builder “Crazy Fawkes,” though “eccentric” would have been a more precise--and kinder--description. He was a loner with few friends but his wife, Emma, who unlike her husband was known for her sunny disposition.

Born in 1861, Fawkes grew up during a period when mass transportation was just developing. He loved speed. In smartly tailored clothes and sporting a waxed mustache, he raced around town in a carriage drawn by a pair of spirited horses with two Dalmatian dogs running behind.

He owned a 20-acre ranch of walnut and apricot trees on Olive Avenue between Victory Boulevard and Flower Street. It was there that he cut a swath through the orchard and hung a quarter-mile-long iron rail for the Swallow. The vehicle was about 40 feet long and powered by a Franklin air-cooled engine, which turned the propeller. A hot air dirigible was supposed to be attached above the rail to give the machine the lift it needed to alleviate the weight of passengers and help it move faster, but the balloon never got off the drawing board.

Even before Fawkes’ prototype was ready, the transportation crusader formed the Aerial Trolley Car Co. and started selling stock. He claimed that given the right of way, his monorail could speed from the Valley to downtown Los Angeles in 10 minutes.

But while Fawkes labored frantically to raise capital as well as rails, the Pacific Electric red cars spread their network across the metropolitan area, derailing his efforts.

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That didn’t faze Fawkes, however. All he had to do was change his destination to Santa Monica. On July 4, 1912, with iron-like determination, he invited a group of potential investors to a party on his ranch, with firecrackers, dinners and free rides in another version of the weird car hanging from a curved track.

“Back me and with this setup I can glide straight over Mount Hollywood if they won’t let me go along the river,” he declared. “Once we build a line into Los Angeles, it’ll revolutionize interurban travel. I can cross creeks and arroyos without bridges. It’ll be a gold mine. In 10 years it’ll put the P.E. in a museum.”

Most of his potential investors shrugged and kept their hands firmly in their pockets.

But others remained fascinated with Fawkes’ conception. In 1913, The Times ran a futuristic drawing of a transit system that would provide “relief of overcrowded streets” that included such features as a monorail and people mover.

For his part, Fawkes agitated fruitlessly for recognition.

As time went on, he also became a thorn in the side of Burbank officials. He locked horns with bureaucrats on numerous issues other than his beloved monorail. For years, he had vehemently opposed cityhood for Burbank, and on a few occasions backed moves to annex the city--incorporated in 1911--to Los Angeles.

In 1918, when he decided to run for city treasurer, only 48 transportation-weary Burbank voters gave their support to the entrepreneur-turned-aspiring politician.

Fawkes died in 1928 at the age of 67, his dream unfulfilled. In 1947, his monorail prototype was carted off as junk, rusted and dilapidated. The monorail site was used as a helicopter landing field for air mail service between Burbank and Los Angeles International Airport until the late 1950s.

A thriving steel company now stands where the Aerial Swallow once flew.