![]() When you go on the tour, what is most interesting about the area is that this place was right next to his house. Rodia’s “ship of Marco Polo” has a spire of 28 feet, and the 140-foot long “south wall” is decorated extensively with tiles, seashells, pottery, glass, and hand-drawn designs.” ![]() The monument also features a gazebo with a circular bench, three birdbaths, a center column, and a spire reaching a height of 38 feet. The tallest of his towers stands 99½ feet and contains the most extended slender reinforced concrete column in the world. Besides his own ingenuity, he used simple tools, pipe fitter pliers and a window-washer’s belt and buckle. For 34 years, Rodia worked single-handedly to build his towers without the benefit of machine equipment, scaffolding, bolts, rivets, welds, or drawing board designs. In 1921, Rodia purchased the triangular-shaped lot at 1761-1765 107th Street in Los Angeles and began to construct his masterpiece, which he called “Nuestro Pueblo” (meaning “our town”). “The Watts Towers, consisting of seventeen major sculptures constructed of structural steel and covered with mortar, are the work of one man – Simon Rodia. ![]() On Saturday when I went, the tours ran from about 10:30 AM to 4 PM, every 30 minutes, but check the website before you go, this is not an area of the town that you want to find yourself wandering around in.Ī little history on the builder Simon Rodia and the towers is as follows. Without going on one of the tours (costs 7 dollars in 2012) you will not be able to go into the area with the towers you can only look at it from the outside. If you are thinking about heading down to check out the towers, make sure you check the times that the tour will be going.
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