The Looff Carousel on the Pier

200 Santa Monica Pier. The carousel arrived in 1916, carved by hand, and it's been spinning since. A National Historic Landmark. Inside the round Looff Hippodrome at the pier's tip, horses with painted eyes turn to a band organ that still plays, and the whole thing smells faintly of varnish, old velvet, and sea air.

The pier opened in 1909 and the carousel is the thing that's survived every renovation, every storm, every decade of changing taste. A ride costs a few bucks. Adults become children for three minutes. It's corny and it works.

A small brass plaque at the base of the central column records the birthdate and designers. Nobody reads it. They should — it's the hinge between the pier's carnival present and its early-20th-century purpose.