Re: Agence France story on LOSSAN San Clemente that the loonies will just love.... But, contains interesting observations none the less...
Landslides are fairly common in Orange County, including large ones like
Bluebird Canyon. Landslides along the coastline are also a natural phenomenon made more likely as the beaches go away. Railroads along the base of the coastal bluffs (or worse yes, cut into the slope as at Del Mar, and near Santa Cruz in the La Selva Beach area) are fundamentally temporary.
Check out, for instance, the
Ocean Shore railroad near SF, that eventually became too expensive to maintain along coastal bluffs in several places (including
@#$%& Slide), was flogged off to the state highway department after abandonment, and eventually was abandoned even by them after building new highways farther inland (Highway 1 freeway from Daly City to Pacifica, 1950s, and
@#$%&'s Slide tunnels, 2013).
The likely future of Del Mar and San Clemente, once the railroad is gone, can be seen today in Pacifica and Daly City, the Santa Cruz region, and San Diego, where bluff erosion takes out roads and houses nearly every winter.