This paper reports Brewster angle microscopy (BAM), x-ray specular reflectivity (XR), grazing incidence diffraction (GID) and off-specular diffuse scattering (XOSDS) measurements of Langmuir monolayers formed on water by both mono- and polydisperse samples of alpha-helical poly(gamma-benzyl L-glutamate) (PBLG) as a function of area/monomer A. The microscopic behavior does not exhibit any discernible effects due to differing dispersity. At low surface densities (A > similar to 21 Angstrom(2)/monomer, surface pressure Pi = 0), BAM images reveal partial surface coverage by solidlike monolayer islands. GID measurements show an interhelix peak corresponding to a local parallel alignment of rodlike PBLG molecules, indicating their tendency to aggregate laterally without external pressure. Compression to A < 21 Angstrom(2)/monomer first leads to full and uniform surface coverage by the monolayer, followed by a steep rise in Pi that is accompanied by a decrease in the interhelix distance. Further compression results in a plateau of constant Pi in the Pi-A isotherm (similar to 11.5 < A < similar to 18.5 Angstrom(2)/monomer, Pi similar to 9 dyn/cm), which has previously been attributed to a first-order monolayer-bilayer transition. The interfacial electron density profiles determined by the XR measurements on both sides of the coexistence plateau provide direct evidence for this transition. On the basis of x-ray scattering results, the film on the high-density side of the plateau is shown to consist of a newly formed incomplete and incommensurate second layer that sits on top of and has lower average density than a homogeneous first layer. GID measurements indicate that the second layer can be characterized by larger interhelix d-spacing than the first layer, while XOSDS measurements on the bilayer suggest that the second layer is microscopically inhomogeneous. For both mono- and bilayers, the analysis of observed GID peak widths indicates that the extent of lateral positional correlations between parallel PBLG rods ranges from a few to no more than similar to 15 interhelix distances, implying short-range order.