Way Back When – Santa Barbara In 1926

King Tides Swamp Roads. “Heavy seas rolling in from the southwest and a six-foot nine-inch tide converted [Cabrillo] Boulevard into a canal, and the waves broke over the seawall along Cabrillo Boulevard … Large stones and pieces of asphalt were washed up by the lashing waters. Hundreds of [cars] plowed through the water along the boulevard that varied from six inches to a foot in depth.” – Santa Barbara Daily News, February 12, 1926

(Back before the harbor was built, the area now called West Beach was often underwater. The concrete wall that runs along the bike path was built in 1915 to keep the ocean from swamping Cabrillo Boulevard, although that clearly was not enough in 1926.)