Los Angeles (/ lɔːs ˈændʒələs / ( listen);[a] Spanish: Los Ángeles; Spanish for "The Angels"),

[16] officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the most
populous city in California; the second most populous city in the United States, after New
York City; and the third-most populous city in North America, after Mexico City and New
York City. With an estimated population of nearly four million people,[11] Los Angeles is the
cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. The city is known for
its Mediterranean-like climate, ethnic diversity, Hollywood, the entertainment industry, and
its sprawling metropolis.

Los Angeles lies in a basin, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, with mountains as high as
10,000 feet (3,000 m), and deserts. The city, which covers about 469 square miles
(1,210 km2),[17] is the county seat of Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the
United States. The Los Angeles metropolitan area (MSA) is the second-largest metropolitan
area in the nation with a population of 13.1 million people.[18] The Greater Los
Angeles metropolitan area (CSA) is the second-most populous CSA metropolitan area with
a 2015 estimate of 18.7 million people.[19]
Los Angeles has a diverse economy and hosts businesses in a broad range of professional
and cultural fields. It is also famous for its movie, television, and recording industry.
A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index and 9th in the Global
Economic Power Index. The Los Angeles metropolitan area also has a gross metropolitan
product of $1.044 trillion[20] (as of 2017), making it the third-largest city by GDP in the
world, after the Tokyo and New York City metropolitan areas. Los Angeles hosted
the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and will host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez
Cabrillo for Spain in 1542, along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The
city was officially founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It
became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at
the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were
purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and thus became part of the United
States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months
before California achieved statehood. The discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid
growth to the city.[21] The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, which delivers
water from Eastern California, later assured the city's continued rapid growth.
Prior to the 1950s, Los Angeles' name had multiple pronunciations, but the soft "G"
pronunciation is universal today. Some early movies or video shows it pronounced with a
hard "G" (/ lɔːs ˈænɡələs /).[22] Sam Yorty was one of the last public figures who still used
the hard "G" pronunciation.[23]
The city is divided into many different districts and neighborhoods, [69][70] some of which
were incorporated cities that merged with Los Angeles.[71] These neighborhoods were
developed piecemeal, and are well-defined enough that the city has signage marking
nearly all of them.[72]
Overview[edit]

The city's street patterns generally follows a grid plan, with uniform block lengths and
occasional roads that cut across blocks. However, this is complicated by rugged terrain,
which has necessitated having different grids for each of the valleys that Los Angeles
covers. Major streets are designed to move large volumes of traffic through many parts of
the city, many of which are extremely long; Sepulveda Boulevard is 43 miles (69 km) long,
while Foothill Boulevard is over 60 miles (97 km) long, reaching as far east as San
Bernardino. Drivers in Los Angeles suffer from one of the worst rush hour periods in the
world, according to an annual traffic index by navigation system maker, TomTom. LA
drivers spend an additional 92 hours in traffic each year. During the peak rush hour there
is 80% congestion, according to the index.[73] The tallest building in the city is the Wilshire
Grand Center.
Los Angeles is often characterized by the presence of low-rise buildings. Outside of a few
centers such as Downtown, Warner Center, Century City, Koreatown, Miracle
Mile, Hollywood and Westwood, skyscrapers and high-rise buildings are not common. The
few skyscrapers built outside of those areas often stand out above the rest of the
surrounding landscape. Most construction is done in separate units, rather than wall-to-
wall. That being said, Downtown Los Angeles itself has many buildings over 30 stories,
with fourteen over 50 stories, and two over 70 stories. Also, Los Angeles is increasingly
becoming a city of apartments rather than single family dwellings, especially in the dense
inner city and Westside neighborhoods.

Landmarks[edit]

See also: List of sites of interest in the Los Angeles area and National Register of Historic
Places listings in Los Angeles, California

Important landmarks in Los Angeles include the Hollywood Sign, Walt Disney Concert
Hall, Capitol Records Building, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Angels
Flight, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Dolby Theatre, Griffith Observatory, Getty
Center, Getty Villa, Stahl House, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, L.A. Live, the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, the Venice Canal Historic District and boardwalk, Theme
Building, Bradbury Building, U.S. Bank Tower, Wilshire Grand Center, Hollywood
Boulevard, Los Angeles City Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Battleship USS Iowa, Watts
Towers, Staples Center, Dodger Stadium, and Olvera Street.