AtD (37) p. 1040...more electricty and railroads

[Mark Kohut]

The Pacific Electric Building (also known as the Huntington Building, after the developer, Henry Huntington, or 6th & Main for its location) opened in 1905 as the terminal for the Pacific Electric Red Car Lines running east and south of downtown Los Angeles, as well as the company's main headquarters building. It was designed by architect Thornton Fitzhugh. Though not the first modern building in Los Angeles, nor the tallest, its large footprint and ten floor height made it the largest building in floor area west of Chicago for several decades after its completion. Above the main floor terminal were five floors of offices and, on the top three floors, the facilities of the Jonathan Club, one of the city's leading businessmen's clubs.   

 Sold, later to The Southern Pacific Railroad

More, more of Pynchon's railroads and electricity and their connections...Are there more railroads in AtD than in any other novel, poem, epic ever?

I want to NOTE WELL how P's sinister electricity/railroad associations and
battleship security jokes characterize sunny Hollywood/LA and easygoing Lew so differently from our (probable) preconceptions. Hollywood/LA is
dangerous in itself.  

Prohibition: 

1920 to 1933 in the United States 
Lew is now a typical hard-drinking PI. What does that do to our judgment of his perceptions? 

Misc. new movie, LA, 1928: http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&id=2531&reviewid=VE1117937210