Photos: Historical photos of pollution in California

Gov. Jerry Brown Jr. hands a signed copy of AB 250, the air pollution bill, to Assemblyman Jerry Lewis, who wrote the bill, during a ceremony at the Air Resources Board laboratory in El Monte on July 2, 1976.

Aug. 30, 1990: An aerial view of the downtown Los Angeles skyline.

Aug. 21, 1973: California Air Resources Board technicians perform a new car certification test. Exhaust gases are collected in bags, left, and analyzed to measure pollutants. (

March 4, 1986: Linda Whitney of State Smog Control obtains some information from motorist Ruth Modzelevich of Alhambra during a random roadside check of automobile emissions control

April 25, 1973: Los Angeles County Supervisor James A. Hayes displays a catalytic muffler, part of a smog control system that would be tested in the county. Ernest S. Starkman of General Motors looks on.

June 12, 1979: A worker from Ford installs a catalytic converter in an assembly line.

Downtown Los Angeles’ tallest buildings rise above a blanket of smog in October 1973.  (Fitzgerald Whitney / Los Angeles Times)

Nov. 12, 1959: Visibility is limited on Broadway, looking south from First Street, during a smog attack in 1959.

Dec. 19, 1958: Downtown Los Angeles, seen from the top of the Angels Flight funicular in 1958, is shrouded in smog.

June 15, 1993: The Los Angeles skyline as seen from the First Street bridge.

February 1953: City Hall, merely across the street, is dim as Marion E. Lent gropes her way to work.