Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration, in one of its many economy-stimulating public works projects, installed sets of exercise equipment on the beach just south of the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California.
The weight benches, parallel bars and gymnastics rings soon became a magnet for athletes, acrobats and famous bodybuilders such as Jack LaLanne.
Male and female gymnasts regularly put on public shows, dazzling beachgoers with their displays of strength and balance.
The weightlifting equipment was eventually removed and relocated, drawing the bodybuilding crowd to a different Muscle Beach slightly down the coast in Venice, but the original retains an array of gymnastics equipment for daring tumblers.
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image:Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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