Eagle Rock, a massive sandstone 150 feet tall and 553 feet in circumference at the base, sits along side the Ventura Freeway. Its primary feature is what appears to be an eagle - its wings stretched out and with beak pointing out. The time of day and amount of sunlight seem to have a major effect on what one is able to see.
The Indians are believed to have used the rock as a fortress, spying on the settlers below. The Spanish settler called the rock "Piedra Gorda" ("fat rock"), but by the 1880s the present name was in use.
In 1874 the bandit Tiburcio Vasquez hid out in one of the two caves in the rock.
Eagle Rock was incorporated in 1911 but was annexed by the city of Los Angeles in 1923 because of inadequate water supplies.