The Spanish word "Salinas" refers to the salty marshes that distinguished this low, flat, windswept place. Nearby locations had a greater population because they provided a better natural setting, but when the Southern Pacific railroad chose the expedient route down the center of the valley, Salinas became the largest city in the valley.
Amtrak's Coast Starlight is one of the few passenger trains in the U.S. that is still popular. Running from Los Angeles to Seattle, it stops twice a day in Salinas, once northbound, once southbound.
A gathering of homeless folk on "the other side of the tracks". Just beyond the modern warehouses is the short 2 or 3 block section of Soledad Street that was Chinatown. The Buddhist temple is still there, but the rest contains a Franciscan Order soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, and a couple of bars where street walkers and drug dealers ply their trade at night. In this photo the Gavilan range in the distance seems to match the biblical darkness that lay East of Eden in the book.