LOS ANGELES MADISON COMPLEX

LSANCA01, LSANCA02 AND LSANCA03

The Pacific Bell/SBC "Madison Complex"  in downtown Los Angeles (LSANCA01, LSANCA02 and LSANCA03) is one of the largest telephone central offices in the nation. This complex is actually made up of three adjoining buildings built during different years as load growth warranted. The original building is long gone but was built on the same site in the 1900s as part of the Home Telephone Company. During 1907, this office had the capacity of 10,000 lines, quite a difference from today. Two new offices were built at the site in 1925, the second office was enlarged in 1945 to allow for load growth. The third office was constructed in 1961 and is 17 stories tall and 450 feet high. This building was provide long distance service and Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) capabilities for AT&T and Pacific Telephone. Atop this building was a "modern" microwave tower with numerous antenna horns (see below). These multi-storied buildings cover one city block and are all connected through catwalks and adjoining corridors. (The third office is 17 stories and 450 feet high).

  Besides PacBell/SBC, AT&T and numerous other telecomm/wireless companies are collocated here. This is a tandem office for the 213 area code. The theoretical number of telephone lines that can be served from this office are 1.3 million and this office also serves as a foreign exchange carrier to neighboring area codes. 

L-3I coaxial cables once connected the Madison Complex to Mojave, El Paso (terminal station as part of that transcontinental cable), Sherman Oaks, Santa Barbara (GTE), Covina (GTE) and Santa Monica (GTE). Other Coax connections were to Alhambra, Anaheim, San Diego, Ventura and San Bernardino. Early fiber connected to Gardena and Sherman Oaks. Today the complex hosts thousands of trunks to network the local CO's and long distance carriers.

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