Sixty years of the Mecca

Joe Gold opened this gym in August 1965 and built the first machines himself, welded from scrap and heavier than anything you could buy. The bodybuilders came because the equipment worked and stayed because the room told the truth about effort.

Arnold Schwarzenegger started training here about three years in and called the place his second home. In 1977 the cameras came for Pumping Iron, and the gym went from a Venice secret to the most famous weight room on earth. The barbell logo you know arrived in 1973, drawn by Ric Drasin, a pro wrestler who trained on this floor.

ESPN has put this building on its list of the hundred most important sports venues in North America. We think of it more simply. The iron does not care what year it is, and neither do we. Come lift.