In 1888, the Santa Fe Railroad laid tracks from Los Angeles to Redondo Beach Wharf and passed through Manhattan Beach. Later the Santa Fe terminated their passenger service in 1918 The Pacific Electric installed a track along the oceanfront from Los Angeles to Santa Monica and south of Redondo Beach passing through Manhattan Beach. The tracks were west of The Strand where the bicycle path is today. The Pacific Railway ran till 1940.
How Manhattan Beach got is name- John Merrill owner of the southern section which was between First Street and Center Street and west of the Santa Fe tracks to The Strand. John Merrill called his Manhattan after his hometown in New York. According to Frank Daugherty, a coin was flipped and Manhattan won.
Over the years, the original beach cottages were torn down to build fancier homes. One cottage sitting on 205 15th street looking down Manhattan Ave remained unchanged for 80 years. Years later the house was going to go under construction until the City Council saved it. The Manhattan Beach School District, offered a new home for the cottage and is now referred to as the "Little Red House" in Polliwog Park.
Manhattan Beach is on the Pacific Ocean Coast, to the south of El Segundo, and to the north of Hermosa Beach. To the east are Hawthorne and Redondo Beach. Manhattan Beach is one of the three beach cities in the South Bay. The city is upscale beach town making it one of the most expensive coastal towns to live in America.
In the 2000 census, there were 33,854 people, 14,474 households and 8,394 families residing in Manhattan Beach. The racial makeup of the city was 88.99% white, 0.61% African American, 0.21% Native American, 6.04% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 1.23% from other races and 2.81% from two or more races. Hispanic and Latino of any race were 5.19% of the population.
There were 14,474 households out of which 28.1% had children under the age of 18. 49.8% were married couples living together, 5.8% had a female householder with no husband and 42% were non-families living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.98.
The median income for a household in the city was $100,750 and the median income for a family was $122,688.36. Males had a median income of $84,256 versus $54,142 for females. The per capita income for the city was $61,136. About 2.3% of families and 3.2% of the populations were below the poverty line, including 2.3% of the house under the age of 18 and 4.9% of the those age 65 or over.
