US 66 1935 alignment via Eagle Rock + pre-1936 via Royal Oaks Ave in Monrovia?

Started by Exit58, May 16, 2019, 03:15:22 PM

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Exit58

I've been doing more research on US 66 in the LA area and a few oddities have popped up and I was wondering if someone could give me some clarification. According to the-route66.com, there was a very short lived (1935 only), but completely different alignment of US 66 through Eagle Rock. This was before the 1936 realignment to Santa Monica, so US 66 still left LA on Broadway but instead of taking Broadway, Huntington and Fair Oaks to Pasadena, it instead turned left onto Ave 20 which becomes San Fernando Rd a block north of there. It continued on San Fernando to Verdugo, where it switch to the almost-parallel Eagle Rock Blvd before curving east into Eagle Rock itself. It then turned right onto Colorado and meets the 1936 alignment at Figueroa. Was this some sort of construction bypass due to the Arroyo Seco being built, an oddity or just not true? I can't seem to find any other concrete info on this besides the-route66.

I also found on a topography map on Historic Aerials that Huntington did not go east of Shamrock Ave in Monrovia until sometime in the 1930s, probably 1938. So when US 66 came down Shamrock, it did not go straight to Huntington instead turning left onto modern Royal Oaks, right onto Highland and left onto Huntington. I say 1938 because that's when the Foothill alignment in Monrovia was bypassed by the Huntington extension, and it would make the most sense. Now, these topography maps have steered me wrong in the past, but it seems to mostly add up. I was wondering if anyone else would be able to confirm because the maps from the time seem to be lacking the definition in order to make this distinction.


sparker

Quote from: Exit58 on May 16, 2019, 03:15:22 PM
I've been doing more research on US 66 in the LA area and a few oddities have popped up and I was wondering if someone could give me some clarification. According to the-route66.com, there was a very short lived (1935 only), but completely different alignment of US 66 through Eagle Rock. This was before the 1936 realignment to Santa Monica, so US 66 still left LA on Broadway but instead of taking Broadway, Huntington and Fair Oaks to Pasadena, it instead turned left onto Ave 20 which becomes San Fernando Rd a block north of there. It continued on San Fernando to Verdugo, where it switch to the almost-parallel Eagle Rock Blvd before curving east into Eagle Rock itself. It then turned right onto Colorado and meets the 1936 alignment at Figueroa. Was this some sort of construction bypass due to the Arroyo Seco being built, an oddity or just not true? I can't seem to find any other concrete info on this besides the-route66.

I also found on a topography map on Historic Aerials that Huntington did not go east of Shamrock Ave in Monrovia until sometime in the 1930s, probably 1938. So when US 66 came down Shamrock, it did not go straight to Huntington instead turning left onto modern Royal Oaks, right onto Highland and left onto Huntington. I say 1938 because that's when the Foothill alignment in Monrovia was bypassed by the Huntington extension, and it would make the most sense. Now, these topography maps have steered me wrong in the past, but it seems to mostly add up. I was wondering if anyone else would be able to confirm because the maps from the time seem to be lacking the definition in order to make this distinction.

This may have been a temporary US 66 routing during the upgrading of North Figueroa to 4 lanes through Highland Park to accommodate US 66 traffic in addition to the SSR 11 traffic that had always used that section of LRN 165.  Verdugo Ave. from San Fernando Road to Eagle Rock Blvd. was the southernmost part of LRN 61 (aka much of SSR 2, including the Angeles Crest Highway); Eagle Rock Blvd. from there northeast to Colorado Blvd. in the center of the Eagle Rock district was the easternmost part of LRN 162, which west of there (via Fletcher Ave.) carried the E-W portion of SSR 2 as well as (after '35) US 66 west from US 101 to Santa Monica.  While about 5 miles or so out of the way, it would have been a detour completely over state maintained highways -- which back in the '30's may have been deemed a prudent approach. 

And the above observation that Division of Highways local maps at the time weren't very clear as to delineation of state routes is astute; it wasn't until after 1934 that the Division of Highways decided upon a combination of LRN 165/Figueroa and LRN 161/Colorado as the preferred route from downtown L.A. into Pasadena, after trying out varying alignments along North Broadway, Huntington Drive (a massive fail due to traffic mixing with Pacific Electric interurban rail), and Fair Oaks through South Pasadena.  But ironically Figueroa as US 66 lasted less than five years until the Arroyo Seco Parkway (LRN 205) was opened to traffic, at which point US 66 was rerouted over that facility.   The Figueroa/Colorado alignment was kept "in the family" as Alternate US 66 until the '64 renumbering. 

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: sparker on May 16, 2019, 09:15:38 PM
Quote from: Exit58 on May 16, 2019, 03:15:22 PM
I've been doing more research on US 66 in the LA area and a few oddities have popped up and I was wondering if someone could give me some clarification. According to the-route66.com, there was a very short lived (1935 only), but completely different alignment of US 66 through Eagle Rock. This was before the 1936 realignment to Santa Monica, so US 66 still left LA on Broadway but instead of taking Broadway, Huntington and Fair Oaks to Pasadena, it instead turned left onto Ave 20 which becomes San Fernando Rd a block north of there. It continued on San Fernando to Verdugo, where it switch to the almost-parallel Eagle Rock Blvd before curving east into Eagle Rock itself. It then turned right onto Colorado and meets the 1936 alignment at Figueroa. Was this some sort of construction bypass due to the Arroyo Seco being built, an oddity or just not true? I can't seem to find any other concrete info on this besides the-route66.

I also found on a topography map on Historic Aerials that Huntington did not go east of Shamrock Ave in Monrovia until sometime in the 1930s, probably 1938. So when US 66 came down Shamrock, it did not go straight to Huntington instead turning left onto modern Royal Oaks, right onto Highland and left onto Huntington. I say 1938 because that's when the Foothill alignment in Monrovia was bypassed by the Huntington extension, and it would make the most sense. Now, these topography maps have steered me wrong in the past, but it seems to mostly add up. I was wondering if anyone else would be able to confirm because the maps from the time seem to be lacking the definition in order to make this distinction.

This may have been a temporary US 66 routing during the upgrading of North Figueroa to 4 lanes through Highland Park to accommodate US 66 traffic in addition to the SSR 11 traffic that had always used that section of LRN 165.  Verdugo Ave. from San Fernando Road to Eagle Rock Blvd. was the southernmost part of LRN 61 (aka much of SSR 2, including the Angeles Crest Highway); Eagle Rock Blvd. from there northeast to Colorado Blvd. in the center of the Eagle Rock district was the easternmost part of LRN 162, which west of there (via Fletcher Ave.) carried the E-W portion of SSR 2 as well as (after '35) US 66 west from US 101 to Santa Monica.  While about 5 miles or so out of the way, it would have been a detour completely over state maintained highways -- which back in the '30's may have been deemed a prudent approach. 

And the above observation that Division of Highways local maps at the time weren't very clear as to delineation of state routes is astute; it wasn't until after 1934 that the Division of Highways decided upon a combination of LRN 165/Figueroa and LRN 161/Colorado as the preferred route from downtown L.A. into Pasadena, after trying out varying alignments along North Broadway, Huntington Drive (a massive fail due to traffic mixing with Pacific Electric interurban rail), and Fair Oaks through South Pasadena.  But ironically Figueroa as US 66 lasted less than five years until the Arroyo Seco Parkway (LRN 205) was opened to traffic, at which point US 66 was rerouted over that facility.   The Figueroa/Colorado alignment was kept "in the family" as Alternate US 66 until the '64 renumbering.

One thing worth considering, there was a strong chance US 66 would have been on signed on non-Division of Highways maintained roadways during the 1930s...or there was a chance of it.  The ACSC would have been responsible for signing routes and it wouldn't surprise me if there was deviations from State Maintained facilities onto roadways under local control.  Case and point; US 40, US 101 and US 50 in Oakland/San Francisco are incredibly difficult to pinpoint down with absolute certainty during the 1930s given the State didn't maintain any roadways until halfway through the decade.  Aside from vintage photos there is almost no way to know with absolute certainty where any signed highway in California was 100% before the 1940s.

mrsman

Somewhat related to this discussion are these two articles from Nathan Masters:

https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-lost-hills-of-downtown-los-angeles

https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/lost-tunnels-of-downtown-la


Apparently, the original main route to the north from L.A. (toward Pasadena) was Main Street - Mission - Huntington- Fair Oaks.  Main Street avoided the hills and was the only way north for a while.  The construction of a tunnel through Fort Moore, allowed for traffic to use Broadway (once known as Fort Street) along a more direct path towards Huntington and Fair Oaks.

Next, it seems that (as sparker mentioned) to avoid the pathway along the Pacific Electric RR, the traffic to Pasadena left Broadway just north of the Broadway bridge (over the L.A. River) along Pasadena Avenue to Figueroa and followed that roadway towards Colorado Street.  At the time, the street that we know as North Figueroa was just part of Pasadena Avenue.  There was no bridge over the L.A. River and no tunnels through Elysian Park.

[Legacy of this routing still exists today as the combination of North Figueroa, Pasadena, and Broadway form the boundary between east and west address numbering for the numbered avenues on the east side of the L.A. river.  This demonstrates that this was a principal road.]

To bypass the most congested parts of Downtown L.A., Figueroa Street (originally known as Grasshopper Street) was extended north with the tunnels and the bridges and this became the main routing for US 66, even though at the time Figueroa Street, being west of Bunker Hill, was largely residential and not really considered part of Downtown L.A.

Of course, we know that later the construction of the Arroyo Seco Pkwy (and later the Harbor Fwy) would push Downtown development to the west, so that now Figueroa is in the heart of the skyscraper district, whereas Broadway and Main represent the older parts of Downtown and are not as densely packed.

sparker

^^^^^^^^^^^^
It was more than likely that ACSC tooks the reins of pre-1934 signage, and in looking for a clear pathway from L.A. to Pasadena, actually, at first, erected US 66 signage on North Broadway, Huntington, and Fair Oaks as a reasonable pathway that avoided gradients; it's also likely that fender-benders (or worse) involving the Big Red Cars and the Model A's of the day resulted in quick reconsideration of that option.  The Pasadena Ave. bridge cutoff from Broadway was built about that time, so some sort of routing over that to what is now N. Figueroa at the south end of Highland Park was at some point signed -- since that was the original LRN 165, signage would have been a natural, even with the original 2-lane configuration of Pasadena Ave (eventually, when the tunnels were completed, Figueroa).  Some maps I've seen reflected the original desire of South Pasadena to be located along US 66; it appears that somewhere around 1931-32 the York Blvd. bridge across Arroyo Seco was signed as US 66, with the route segueing onto S. Pasadena's version of Pasadena Ave. before turning north on Fair Oaks into Pasadena; that gave way a couple of years later to the Figueroa/Colorado routing that served until the opening of the Arroyo Seco Parkway -- it being the first L.A.-Pasadena routing completely on state-maintained ROW (LRN's 165 & 161 respectively). 

Between 1926 and 1934 ACSC were busy little bees; much the same thing was done with the US 99 routing through the Lincoln Heights district on the east bank of the L.A. River.  LRN 26, the Ramona Parkway, was only a projected line on the map at the time; LRN 77 used Valley Blvd. to the L.A. city limits near Eastern Avenue, but state maintenance ceased at that boundary.  But ACSC, after it was decided to reroute US 99 off US 66 between San Bernardino and Pasadena circa 1929, signed Valley Blvd. as US 99 to the multi-street intersection of Valley, Mission, and Main Streets; opting to continue west on Main St. to Ave. 20, then turning north until that street crossed Broadway and became San Fernando Road -- which, of course, headed out of town via the San Fernando Valley and the Grapevine.  But Ave. 20 was a narrow city street; the Division of Highways assumed maintenance of Daly St. as part of LRN 4 a few blocks east, which itself segued onto Avenue 26 at Pasadena Ave. (then LRN 165); Avenue 26 then merged  onto San Fernando Road near the SP Taylor Yard facility north of Arroyo Seco.  That whole section, opened about 1931, became signed US 99.  When the Ramona Parkway was completed at the end of 1934, Daly St. was extended south via a bridge over the SP tracks to Marengo St., which it used as the access point to the eastbound Ramona Parkway near Soto St. -- at which point US 99 entered the eastbound parkway, also signed as US 60.  From 1935 to 1953 both US highways diverged from the parkway at Garvey Street at the west side of Alhambra; Garvey (LRN 26) continued east to Covina, where it segued into Holt Ave. for the climb over Kellogg Hill, descending into Pomona.  In 1953 the parkway, by then configured as a full freeway, was opened to Rosemead Ave. near El Monte; with US 70 added by that time, US 60 & 99 were rerouted over the new facility.  Once the eastern extension through El Monte was opened around 1958, it was relabeled the San Bernardino Freeway -- with the portions east of Pomona receiving I-10 signage by late 1958, and the rest of the freeway into L.A. getting such signage by the end of '59, when the freeway was fully completed from L.A. out to US 91 & 395 in Colton (along with the original I-15 iteration).  Upon opening, the I-10 freeway took most of the through truck traffic off US 66 to the north -- a situation that persisted until 2002, when the I-/CA 210 combination was completed east to I-15 in Fontana, with I-10 receiving a bit of relief as a result -- and even more when 210 was built out to I-215 five years later.

The upshot is that prior to the completion of the San Bernardino Freeway, through traffic heading to and from L.A. to east/inland points encountered a series of routings that were convoluted and/or strung through the centers of many of the cities and towns in the region.  It mattered little whether it was US 66 or US 99;  between ACSC and the Division of Highways these two main corridors bounced from one series of streets to another until their final iteration. 

mrsman

^^^^

That's such an interesting story.  Thanks to you and others who are able to pierce through some of the mysteries of highway routings.

It is wierd though.  You would think that if there was a roadway that went from L.A. to Pasadena, there would be one traditional main way.  Then as that got crowded, it would be bypassed.  Then that would be bypassed again and finally routed onto the modern freeway alignment.

One example, if you check out the link below in suburban northeastern Baltimore:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Baltimore,+MD/@39.3232428,-76.5173037,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c803aed6f483b7:0x44896a84223e758!8m2!3d39.2903848!4d-76.6121893

The road to Philadelphia was originally along "Old Philadelphia Rd." - a narrow road.  This then got bypassed with "Philadelphia Rd" (Route 7) - one full lane in each direction.  This later got bypassed with Pulaski Hwy (US 40) - which is two lanes in each direction (plus medians and left turn lanes which got added later).  And finally that got bypassed with I-95.  [I don't have the exact years in place, but it would seem that the old road existed since colonial times in some way or fashion, the next road came about in the early automobile era in the 1920's, the US 40 bypass probably in the 1930's and I-95 was opened in the early 1960's.

You would think it would be similar in CA.  You would think that the routings wouldn't be changed every year until they got a routing that they liked.


You mentioned some of the history of US 99.  To your knowledge, in the era prior to the 4-level interchange opening, was US 99 ever routed through the heart of Downtown L.A.?  Meaning that on its journey from San Fernando to Alhambra did it always pass along the streets on the east side of the river (Ave 20, Ave 26, Daly) or did it ever make its way into town?  (I do know that there are some routings that have US 99 follow Arroyo Seco - 4 level- Santa Ana Fwy - SB Fwy, but that was only in the freeway era?

Also, is there any information out there as to what was the main routing between Mission San Gabriel and Mission San Fernando in the early days?  It would seem that such a routing, to the extent that it is still traceable, may have indeed been the forerunner of US 99.

sparker

^^^^^^^^^
Once the Figueroa Tunnels were competed by 1935 and the adjoining L.A. River bridge were completed a couple of years later -- including the left exit onto Figueroa that comprised the connection to the "old road" as well as an access point for the Avenue 26 portion of US 99, it was decided that all the area's trunk highways, including US 99, would be routed to a central point -- that being the corner of Sunset and Figueroa, immediately northwest of downtown L.A.  At that time the L.A. Civic Center was being expanded northward; the Division of Highways acceded to city wishes to ensure that as much through traffic as possible passed through the city center (personal note -- be careful what you wish for; you might get something besides the expected!).  Signage was removed from the remainder of Avenue 26 south of Figueroa as well as Daly and Marengo Streets; US 99 was rerouted along with US 66 and SSR 11 down to Sunset & Figueroa, where US 66 turned west with NB US 101 toward Hollywood, SSR 11 continued south through downtown toward San Pedro, and US 99 turned east on Sunset, seguing onto Macy to Mission Ave.  There US 99 turned south for a block (US 101 continued east on Macy to Pleasant Ave., where it turned south), along with US 60, which had its western terminus at the corner of Macy & Mission, and then turned east on the Ramona Parkway toward Alhambra and Monterey Park.  That routing persisted until after WW II, when the Aliso Street extension and the nascent Santa Ana Freeway were built -- the former segueing into the Hollywood Freeway, with the 4-level Interchange opening in '53 -- at which time the state route center shifted onto freeways from surface facilities. 

BTW, US 6 joined the mix by late 1938, multiplexing with US 99 south to the Sunset/Figueroa intersection, but continuing with SSR 11 southward from that point.

mrsman

It is amazing to think of all the complicated routings that existed through the 4-level interchange pre-1964 renumbering.

Hollywood Fwy: 101, 66, 6A* [now only 101]
Harbor Fwy: 11, 6                 [now only 110]
Pasadena Fwy: 11, 66, 6, 99  [now only 110]
Santa Ana Fwy: 101, 99         [now only 101 but signed as leading to I-5, I-10 and 60]

Was there ever signage at the 4-level directing traffic bound for US 60-US 70 to take the Santa Ana Fwy?

Hollywood-Harbor:  6A* (except for 6A, NONE)
Hollywood-Pasadena: 66
Hollywood-Santa Ana: 101
Harbor-Pasadena: 11, 6 [present day 110]
Harbor-Santa Ana: NONE (no highway was ever signed to go from the Harbor to the Santa Ana)
Pasadena-Santa Ana: 99

* What I refer to as 6A was the idea, not ever fully implemented to route US 6 between San Fernando and Downtown LA along the 170 and 101 corridors.  If this were ever carried out, it would have course result in US 6 transitioning from the Hollywood to the Harbor.  It would also justify the northbound control of Hollywood along the Harbor Fwy that you still see today at the I-10.  It also somewhat justifies the use of Sacramento as a control on on-ramps to the 101 NB Hollywood Fwy (but I still regard these as errors).

We discussed this a few years ago here:

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9308.0


TheStranger

Quote from: mrsman on May 17, 2019, 04:18:40 PM


Was there ever signage at the 4-level directing traffic bound for US 60-US 70 to take the Santa Ana Fwy?


I have definitely seen a late-1950s photo where US 70 is marked at the Four-Level for the upcoming San Bernardino Freeway exit off 101.

It isn't this photo, but from what I recall, the large pullthrough in the background for US 99/US 101 south here was later marked for US 70 east/US 101 south:
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=155878



Chris Sampang

sparker

Quote from: TheStranger on May 17, 2019, 04:40:02 PM
Quote from: mrsman on May 17, 2019, 04:18:40 PM


Was there ever signage at the 4-level directing traffic bound for US 60-US 70 to take the Santa Ana Fwy?


I have definitely seen a late-1950s photo where US 70 is marked at the Four-Level for the upcoming San Bernardino Freeway exit off 101.

It isn't this photo, but from what I recall, the large pullthrough in the background for US 99/US 101 south here was later marked for US 70 east/US 101 south:
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=155878

The initial section of I-5 between Boyle Ave. in Boyle Heights (just north of the current ELA interchange) and Broadway in Lincoln Heights was opened to traffic at the end of 1959; with US 99 being rerouted south from the intersection of Avenue 26 and San Fernando Road down an Ave. 19/20 couplet and then onto the new freeway.  With US 99 now diverted away from the 4-Level Interchange as well as US 101 between there and the San Bernardino Freeway interchange east of there, trailblazer signage for US 70 began to crop up at the 4-level, replacing the US 99 shields (BTW, love the picture of the old Big Black signs!).  That was a real departure for D7, which had always downplayed the presence of US 60 & US 70 until almost right at the San Bernardino/Santa Ana freeway interchange.  Didn't last long; new BGS's began replacing the BBS signage around 1962, with I-10 assuming the "marquee" position held by US 70. 


mrsman

Quote from: sparker on May 18, 2019, 01:06:55 AM
Quote from: TheStranger on May 17, 2019, 04:40:02 PM
Quote from: mrsman on May 17, 2019, 04:18:40 PM


Was there ever signage at the 4-level directing traffic bound for US 60-US 70 to take the Santa Ana Fwy?


I have definitely seen a late-1950s photo where US 70 is marked at the Four-Level for the upcoming San Bernardino Freeway exit off 101.

It isn't this photo, but from what I recall, the large pullthrough in the background for US 99/US 101 south here was later marked for US 70 east/US 101 south:
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=155878

The initial section of I-5 between Boyle Ave. in Boyle Heights (just north of the current ELA interchange) and Broadway in Lincoln Heights was opened to traffic at the end of 1959; with US 99 being rerouted south from the intersection of Avenue 26 and San Fernando Road down an Ave. 19/20 couplet and then onto the new freeway.  With US 99 now diverted away from the 4-Level Interchange as well as US 101 between there and the San Bernardino Freeway interchange east of there, trailblazer signage for US 70 began to crop up at the 4-level, replacing the US 99 shields (BTW, love the picture of the old Big Black signs!).  That was a real departure for D7, which had always downplayed the presence of US 60 & US 70 until almost right at the San Bernardino/Santa Ana freeway interchange.  Didn't last long; new BGS's began replacing the BBS signage around 1962, with I-10 assuming the "marquee" position held by US 70.

Based on the last couple of posts over the last few days, we have that US 99 in and near Downtown LA was first routed along Ave 20 to connect San Fernando Road (in Cypress Heights) to North Main St/Valley Blvd (in Lincoln Heights).  Then, it was moved a few blocks away to Ave 26/Daly, since those streets were wider than Ave 20.  In 1934, Daly Street was extended over RR tracks to meet Marengo and US 99 continued along the Ramona Pkwy (instead of Valley) in the neighborhood near USC Hospital (northern Boyle Heights).

In 1935, US 99 with the completion of the Figueroa tunnels, the US 99 routing was changed.  US 99 was no longer used as a near bypass of the central business district along the somewhat industrial neighborhoods on the east side of the LA River, but routed through the (almost) heart of Downtown LA and passing through the intersection of Figueroa and Sunset. [The real heart of Downtown at the time was at 7th/Broadway, this passed about a mile and a half to the north, but only a few blocks north of City Hall and right near Union Station when it was built in 1939.]  This routing crossed the L.A. River twice (Figueroa and Macy) in order to serve Downtown LA.  In the early 1950's as some of the original freeways came to be built, the routing was moved to pass through the 4-level interchange and the San Bernardino Split (but still within a few blocks of the Figueroa-Sunset-Macy routing).

But then in late 1959, a new freeway started to emerge, the Golden State Fwy, which was routed only a few blocks from the original Ave 20 routing and US 99 was eventually routed back to that.  Essentially, coming back to the original routing of the early 1930's, albeit using the freeway each step in the process as it was getting built.  This of course later became I-5 and US 99 then got decomissioned in California.

sparker

Quote from: mrsman on May 19, 2019, 08:09:57 AM
Quote from: sparker on May 18, 2019, 01:06:55 AM
Quote from: TheStranger on May 17, 2019, 04:40:02 PM
Quote from: mrsman on May 17, 2019, 04:18:40 PM


Was there ever signage at the 4-level directing traffic bound for US 60-US 70 to take the Santa Ana Fwy?


I have definitely seen a late-1950s photo where US 70 is marked at the Four-Level for the upcoming San Bernardino Freeway exit off 101.

It isn't this photo, but from what I recall, the large pullthrough in the background for US 99/US 101 south here was later marked for US 70 east/US 101 south:
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=155878

The initial section of I-5 between Boyle Ave. in Boyle Heights (just north of the current ELA interchange) and Broadway in Lincoln Heights was opened to traffic at the end of 1959; with US 99 being rerouted south from the intersection of Avenue 26 and San Fernando Road down an Ave. 19/20 couplet and then onto the new freeway.  With US 99 now diverted away from the 4-Level Interchange as well as US 101 between there and the San Bernardino Freeway interchange east of there, trailblazer signage for US 70 began to crop up at the 4-level, replacing the US 99 shields (BTW, love the picture of the old Big Black signs!).  That was a real departure for D7, which had always downplayed the presence of US 60 & US 70 until almost right at the San Bernardino/Santa Ana freeway interchange.  Didn't last long; new BGS's began replacing the BBS signage around 1962, with I-10 assuming the "marquee" position held by US 70.

Based on the last couple of posts over the last few days, we have that US 99 in and near Downtown LA was first routed along Ave 20 to connect San Fernando Road (in Cypress Heights) to North Main St/Valley Blvd (in Lincoln Heights).  Then, it was moved a few blocks away to Ave 26/Daly, since those streets were wider than Ave 20.  In 1934, Daly Street was extended over RR tracks to meet Marengo and US 99 continued along the Ramona Pkwy (instead of Valley) in the neighborhood near USC Hospital (northern Boyle Heights).

In 1935, US 99 with the completion of the Figueroa tunnels, the US 99 routing was changed.  US 99 was no longer used as a near bypass of the central business district along the somewhat industrial neighborhoods on the east side of the LA River, but routed through the (almost) heart of Downtown LA and passing through the intersection of Figueroa and Sunset. [The real heart of Downtown at the time was at 7th/Broadway, this passed about a mile and a half to the north, but only a few blocks north of City Hall and right near Union Station when it was built in 1939.]  This routing crossed the L.A. River twice (Figueroa and Macy) in order to serve Downtown LA.  In the early 1950's as some of the original freeways came to be built, the routing was moved to pass through the 4-level interchange and the San Bernardino Split (but still within a few blocks of the Figueroa-Sunset-Macy routing).

But then in late 1959, a new freeway started to emerge, the Golden State Fwy, which was routed only a few blocks from the original Ave 20 routing and US 99 was eventually routed back to that.  Essentially, coming back to the original routing of the early 1930's, albeit using the freeway each step in the process as it was getting built.  This of course later became I-5 and US 99 then got decomissioned in California.

Damn good summary!!!!  As one who was born & raised about 10 miles from where all this was happening, and saw it unfold step by step, I couldn't have done better.  On a side note, US 101 was always the "marquee" through route in relation to L.A.; US 99, while much more important as a commercial corridor, was ever the "red-headed stepchild" of the area, originally relegated to the "hinterlands" of Lincoln Heights -- but brought to the Civic Center party when the Figueroa tunnels made it easy to do so -- and when L.A. was touting the importance of that north-downtown area and wanted as many travelers as possible to partake of its "glory" (remember, this all occurred during the waning years of the Depression, and cities were doing anything possible to get back on their feet, so to speak).  That particular configuration functioned adequately during the wartime years (when bigger things than route alignments loomed) -- but after the war the development of freeways commenced quickly -- first the "radial" routes emanating outward from downtown (Pasadena to the NE, Hollywood to the NW, Harbor to the SW, then due south, and the Santa Ana/San Bernardino duo heading southeast and east respectively).  That pattern duplicated the "everything-into-downtown" trend as far as routing was concerned -- and was only disrupted a decade later when the Interstate system came to call, and the Division of Highways came up with the Golden State/Santa Monica freeway "arc" around downtown -- the original "relief route", eventually augmented by the Pomona Freeway as alternate eastern egress (as well as a place to put US 60 and, of course, later CA 60).  So for a little under another decade there were the old numbers posted alongside the new numbers until the "big bang" of 1964's renumbering effort.  Heady years -- seemed like at least 15-20 miles of new freeway were opened every year in the late '50's and early '60's (just check cahwyguy's site for the precise details) -- which, at least in urban SoCal, won't be seen again. 

TheStranger

Here's a related thought that came to mind:

The 1964-1965 Route 163 consisted of former US 6/99 along San Fernando Road.  BUT...

It also apparently included the well known western segment of the Colorado Street freeway, which was built as Route 134 in the 1950s.  (As I noted in another thread, this is now officially on the books as Route 5S).



Was there ever a point where US 6/99 simply exited the Golden State Freeway to use Colorado and then San Fernando Road, while other parts of the Golden State corridor were under construction south of there?

Chris Sampang

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: TheStranger on May 19, 2019, 05:26:44 PM
Here's a related thought that came to mind:

The 1964-1965 Route 163 consisted of former US 6/99 along San Fernando Road.  BUT...

It also apparently included the well known western segment of the Colorado Street freeway, which was built as Route 134 in the 1950s.  (As I noted in another thread, this is now officially on the books as Route 5S).



Was there ever a point where US 6/99 simply exited the Golden State Freeway to use Colorado and then San Fernando Road, while other parts of the Golden State corridor were under construction south of there?

Probably in 1960 or at least that appears to be what was happening when I did all the I-5 stuff for Southern California on Gribblenation:

https://www.davidrumsey.com/ll/thumbnailView.html?startUrl=%2F%2Fwww.davidrumsey.com%2Fluna%2Fservlet%2Fas%2Fsearch%3Fos%3D0%26lc%3DRUMSEY~8~1%26mid%3DRUMSEY~8~1~239539~5511859%26sort%3DPub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No%26bs%3D10#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&r=0&xywh=2125%2C9123%2C458%2C811

sparker

^^^^^^^^^
You're definitely on my home turf.  After the initial section of the Golden State Freeway was completed in late 1957 between Glendale Blvd. (at the old 1928 Hyperion arch bridge over the L.A. River and later the freeway) and Alameda Ave. in Burbank, construction commenced on the northern extension through Burbank, most of which sat directly atop Front St., then part of US 6/99 -- so that street was closed off and the pavement removed as prep for the freeway.  The original San Fernando Road alignment through downtown had already undergone an early version of a "road diet", shrinking to 2 lanes between expanded sidewalks and landscaping, so reuse as a through route wasn't in the cards.  So it was decided to reroute US 6/99 off San Fernando Road in north Glendale and Burbank onto the following route:  from the corner of Colorado St. and San Fernando Road in Glendale it made a couple of right turns onto the Colorado Street Extension freeway stub, using that to the freeway main line.  It turned north on the freeway about 3 miles to the Alameda St. exit, where it turned west to Victory Blvd., a 4-lane arterial.  It continued north on Victory Blvd. to the 5-point intersection of Victory Blvd., Burbank Blvd., and Victory Place.  Victory Blvd. turned west, but the interim 6/99 routing went straight onto Victory Place for about a mile until it merged onto San Fernando Road after that road went under the adjacent SP tracks through an underpass.  At that point it was back on its original alignment through the east side of the San Fernando Valley.  That routing lasted about 2 years until the freeway was extended through downtown Burbank in late 1959, at which time it was rerouted over the new section.  But the Colorado Street stub-end temporary US 6/99 detour persisted until spring 1961, when the Golden State Freeway was extended as far south as the Pasadena Freeway.  There were even US 6 & 99 reassurance shields posted on the stub. 

Exit58

Quote from: mrsman on May 16, 2019, 11:49:01 PM
Apparently, the original main route to the north from L.A. (toward Pasadena) was Main Street - Mission - Huntington- Fair Oaks.  Main Street avoided the hills and was the only way north for a while.  The construction of a tunnel through Fort Moore, allowed for traffic to use Broadway (once known as Fort Street) along a more direct path towards Huntington and Fair Oaks.

Next, it seems that (as sparker mentioned) to avoid the pathway along the Pacific Electric RR, the traffic to Pasadena left Broadway just north of the Broadway bridge (over the L.A. River) along Pasadena Avenue to Figueroa and followed that roadway towards Colorado Street.  At the time, the street that we know as North Figueroa was just part of Pasadena Avenue.  There was no bridge over the L.A. River and no tunnels through Elysian Park.

[Legacy of this routing still exists today as the combination of North Figueroa, Pasadena, and Broadway form the boundary between east and west address numbering for the numbered avenues on the east side of the L.A. river.  This demonstrates that this was a principal road.]

Something about that route along Main Street seems odd to me. It looks like the early Fort Moore was already constructed and paved connecting Elysian Park and Downtown by 1926, and since we know US 66 left downtown on Broadway, I don't see why ACSC would first sign US 66 across another road to connect to Main and Mission when that could've been easily done along Broadway itself. I know that the old routings and signings didn't always make sense, but that just seems totally redundant. It seems most probable that US 66 took (west to east) Broadway, Mission/Huntington, Fair Oaks. This would also make sense when the later alignment was sent up Pasadena Ave just after the Broadway Bridge to modern Figueroa.

I wish someone had been making notes back then as to the alignments and streets, since it seems the ACSC liked to play around with alignments. I guess at that point though, once the highway traffic reached the city limits, they would just take whatever road had the least traffic, signs be damned lol.

sparker

^^^^^^^^^
Actually, ACSC originally signed US 60 over Main St., originally from 7th Street downtown but later from Sunset Blvd. north of the Civic Center.  US 66 was at that time (pre-1935) on Broadway, a couple of blocks west, so US 66 and US 60 paralleled each other -- one (66) on a state-maintained route (LRN 165) and the other with ACSC-erected US 60 signage on a non-state route, which curved east with Main St. and segued (with US 99 past Daly St.) onto Valley Blvd., which was state-maintained east of the L.A. city line at Eastern Ave. (LRN 77).  This was a decidedly temporary route; the Ramona Parkway/Garvey Ave. continuum (LRN 26) was under development at that time; when it opened, both US 99 (initially east of Soto St.) and US 60 were rerouted onto the parkway, which ended at Mission St. a block south of Macy (the US 60 terminus was then the corner of Mission & Macy (US 101/LRN 2).  It was deemed very vital to get the US 60 traffic off Main Street, since it crossed 4 major RR lines at grade:  the SP at the Rondout curve near their Spring Street yard, the Santa Fe on the west bank of the L.A. River, the U.P. on the east bank, and the S.P. again out on Valley Blvd. at Eastern.  Invariably there would be lengthy traffic stoppages due to the proximity of the yards (trains would sit across the crossing for several minutes until track clearances were given).  US 66 didn't have that problem; it used North Broadway, which perched on the hillside above the yard; its L.A. river crossing cleared both the river and the adjacent tracks.  After 1935, when the Figueroa Tunnels were opened (about the same time as the Ramona Parkway), the state highway routings "gelled" into the configuration that would take them through WW II -- with the addition of the Arroyo Seco Parkway (1940) northeast of the tunnels and carrying the rerouted US 66. 

The ACSC "interim" pre-'35 routings did what they were supposed to do during that Depression-era period with scarce funding available; provide a series of signed routes that provided egress to the downtown area from the adjoining areas.  Eventually the Division of Highways selected a few of them and incorporated those into the state system, including the original US 99 path along Marengo St., Daly St., and Ave. 26 -- which continued to host an unsigned LRN 4 well after US 99 had been rerouted through the tunnels to the Civic Center, being relinquished only when replaced a quarter-century later by the I-5/Golden State Freeway.     

Exit58

^^^^^^^^^

sparker, as usual your information is very informative and invaluable, thank you so much. I have a few more questions that I would like answered though. You talk about US 66 being signed by ACSC on LRN 165 (Broadway beginning at 7th), and US 60 being signed on Main without an LRN. So was US 66 ever signed upon Broadway to Mission to Huntington to Fair Oaks in the LA/Alhambra/Pasadena area, and if so when? I don't see anything about Huntington in that area being part of the State system, but that doesn't mean ACSC couldn't have signed it. A route along Pasadena Ave from the Broadway bridge and along modern Figueroa was shown on a 1930 state highway map, with it abruptly cutting across York Blvd to continue onto (a different) Mission in Pasadena. I should note that this is just a route, no signs are on it and since LRN 165 wasn't added to the system until 1933 nor given it's LRN until 1935, there's no LRN on the map. Also interesting is the fact that the map depicts Broadway just ending there at Pasadena Ave, Figueroa/Pasadena Ave ending at York, and Fair Oaks (in Pasadena) not continuing past Mission even though all of these road segments existed well before the US Highways and this map. Could this very well be the ACSC-signed route of US 66 at the time that eventually became part of LRN 165?

The following two might be a bit tricky due to the lack of maps, but again I saw a topographical map on HistoricAerials that showed the eastern segment of Huntington in Monrovia not continuing west past Highland Ave. In fact it shows (west to east) US 66 turning left off Shamrock Ave onto modern Royal Oaks (then-Foothill), then turning right onto Highland and left again onto Foothill (modern Huntington). It's a slight variation but I think noteworthy because Huntington may not have been completed.

Finally, probably even less noteworthy is a possible small alignment change that is of personal interest. A McNally map from 1926 of LA and surrounding counties shows then Foothill Blvd (without any highway assigned to it, and again west to east) entering the town of Cucamonga, then having to make a quick jog south on a N/S street to connect to another segment of Foothill. I grew up in the area, and when the city of Rancho Cucamonga unveiled the Trailhead Park they also uncovered a concrete segment of Route 66. The trajectory of this concrete was a bit odd to me, as it very well could line up with a now cul-de-saced and rather old and historic street just north of Foothill: San Bernardino Rd. San Bernardino Rd also ends at the N/S Archibald Ave, which could explain that short jog Foothill had to take south to meet with another alignment. I have never been able to find out for certain if San Bernardino Rd was ever signed at part of Foothill, let alone Route 66. Do you have any insight into this?

sparker

^^^^^^^^^^
It certainly seems that pre-'34-35 the Division of Highways was in the process of "trying out" various street alignments before settling on any particular one for its urban LRN's; 165 was no exception.  Through downtown L.A., it was pretty much a certainty -- due to the topology -- that any N-S thoroughfares would be either at Broadway or east or west along what is now Figueroa to avoid the interim hill.  And given the desire to avoid the commercial downtown area (the 7th street alignment of US 101 didn't last long at all!), skirting it on Figueroa, which was well west of the main retail zone, was probably a consensus choice for that particular N-S highway alignment.  But the problem there was the Elysian Park hill area; prior to the series of tunnels that opened in '35, everything had to go around the hills to the southeast.  So LRN 165 could get up to Sunset on Figueroa, but for a couple of years no farther than that using that trajectory.  For the first couple years of its existence, LRN 165 (aka SSR 11 and, north of US 101, US 66) "jogged" south along US 101 to Broadway, turned NE, and followed it to Pasadena Ave., which intersected it right on its L.A. River bridge.  From there it paralleled Broadway a couple of blocks north of that arterial to the intersection with Avenue 26 and Daly St. (LRN 4), where it turned NNE, crossed Arroyo Seco, and reached Highland Park, where it skirted the south side of Mt. Washington on what is now North Figueroa to York Blvd.  A street, Garvanza Ave., extended north from there to Colorado Blvd. in the eastern portion of Eagle Rock; that later became the northernmost part of Figueroa St., with the whole thing being incorporated into LRN 165.  SSR 11 -- and after 1934, US 66 -- turned east on Colorado St (LRN 161, which was SSR 134 west of Garvanza/Figueroa) to the anchorage of the famous/infamous "Suicide Bridge" multiple-arch high bridge over Arroyo Seco, where LRN 165 and SSR 11 diverged north onto Linda Vista Ave. heading toward La Canada/Flintridge.; LRN 161/US 66 went east across the bridge into downtown Pasadena.  Prior to 1934, when Garvanza was widened to 4 lanes, US 66 took a temporary non-state-highway detour -- the last iteration of ACSC-signed US 66 -- east on York Blvd back across Arroyo Seco, segueing onto South Pasadena's "Pasadena Ave." east to Fair Oaks, where it turned north into Pasadena itself.  But once the tunnels under Elysian Park were completed, the entire street was renamed North Figueroa and LRN 165 rerouted over its length. 

The only thing certain that I know about the LRN 9/US 66 alignment in the Upland/Cucamonga area was that for a while the diagonal section of San Bernardino Road south of today's Foothill Blvd. was the original LRN 9 route; westbound it jogged north on Euclid to where Foothill is today, then headed west to skirt the Claremont Colleges complex.  It eventually ended up on Foothill Blvd., which was strung together from a series of local streets; the old Pacific Electric underpass just east of Upland (where the EB tracks crossed to assume an alignment between LRN 9 and LRN 190 to the north) and the underpass out past Etiwanda (where the tracks re-crossed Foothill and remained south of there all the way out to San Bernardino) were constructed in the mid-30's, when the LRN 9/US 66 alignment was being straightened out.  The only section of San Bernardino Ave. that I can be certain was part of LRN 9 was that short diagonal stretch in east Upland; east of there in Cucamonga was uncertain -- I'd have to go back and research old CH&PW issues to see if any project write-ups included original alignment maps.  Between the newer housing developments and the commercial expansion of the Foothill corridor, it would be a daunting task to try to locate any artifacts of original pavement -- looks like it took some parkland excavation to unearth a bit of the past.  But if indeed a San Bernardino Road eastern extension into Cucamonga sat north of present Foothill, I'd venture to guess that at one point it was used as an alignment before the "straightening" projects realigned everything.  Again, archival copies of CH&PW might cast some light on the situation.     

TheStranger

It's interesting to read this and ponder if Figueroa being made the primary downtown corridor for Route 11 and US 6/US 66 ultimately factored in that becoming the 1960s-present commercial district west of Bunker Hill, in part due to the Harbor Freeway's alignment following that trajectory as well (as a path of least resistance back when Broadway had been more important).

Later on there was a proposal for an "East Bypass" freeway (1964-1965 Route 241) between the I-10/I-110 and I-5/Route 110 junctions, which always surprised me as I thought that side of downtown had already been built up for decades:

Chris Sampang

jon daly

This looks like the kind of thread that I would like to read when I get a chance. Thank you.

sparker

^^^^^^^^^
Most of the commercial development related to financial institutions (Security Pacific, Union Bank, etc.) was located on the west side of downtown; much of it along Figueroa St. simply because it was in a valley between hills and made for easier construction.  The Harbor Freeway being adjacent to that street almost certainly did figure into that development, as it did later on to the south along Figueroa with the convention center and stadiums.   Broadway and Main Street, several blocks to the east, by the late '60's were the poster children for downtown deterioration, so upscale development tended to stay several blocks away -- at least west of Pershing Square. 

The number "241" has had several iterations, most as "future" unadopted freeway alignments; the downtown L.A. version, which appeared around 1963-64, was intended to be a relief route for the perennially congested Harbor/Pasadena freeway continuum.  Since no actual alignment was ever adopted, no design features were made public;  my guess is that any such route would have been coordinated with an "urban renewal" (read: tear down old buildings and/or slums) effort that never materialized.  The 2nd iteration in S.F. was a substitute for the original I-80 extension to Golden Gate Park after the Interstate designation was withdrawn by 1968; at that time such a routing was a "dead man walking" -- if it wasn't going to be constructed with 90% Interstate funding, there was no chance in hell that a state-funded freeway (even with some FAP money then available) would be built across the middle of S.F.  The CA 241 designation was simply a placeholder until the corridor was rescinded circa 1976.  And the third iteration as an OC toll road had an interesting history re the shuffling of designations among the various branches of the cluster; originally 241 was the designation of only the southernmost portion of the current CA 241 corridor, from (now) CA 133 south to San Clemente; now-CA 241 north of there and the toll portion of CA 133 north of I-5 were to be CA 231.  But after some design changes -- including the elimination of an interchange at CA 261 and I-5 -- it was decided to designate the main section of the tolled facilities -- the one curving around the hillside and intersecting CA 91 in the Santa Ana Canyon -- as a single number, 241, with the "spurs" connecting it to the Irvine "flatlands" carrying different numbers; since the old 231 connected directly to existing CA 133, that number was simply extended north to 241, while the "spur" heading down Jamboree Road into central Irvine sans an I-5 interchange became CA 261.  Of course, the travails of the southern portion of CA 241 are legend because of the route's effective truncation due to environmental concerns in the San Clemente area.   

mrsman

Quote from: Exit58 on May 20, 2019, 09:02:16 PM
Quote from: mrsman on May 16, 2019, 11:49:01 PM
Apparently, the original main route to the north from L.A. (toward Pasadena) was Main Street - Mission - Huntington- Fair Oaks.  Main Street avoided the hills and was the only way north for a while.  The construction of a tunnel through Fort Moore, allowed for traffic to use Broadway (once known as Fort Street) along a more direct path towards Huntington and Fair Oaks.

Next, it seems that (as sparker mentioned) to avoid the pathway along the Pacific Electric RR, the traffic to Pasadena left Broadway just north of the Broadway bridge (over the L.A. River) along Pasadena Avenue to Figueroa and followed that roadway towards Colorado Street.  At the time, the street that we know as North Figueroa was just part of Pasadena Avenue.  There was no bridge over the L.A. River and no tunnels through Elysian Park.

[Legacy of this routing still exists today as the combination of North Figueroa, Pasadena, and Broadway form the boundary between east and west address numbering for the numbered avenues on the east side of the L.A. river.  This demonstrates that this was a principal road.]

Something about that route along Main Street seems odd to me. It looks like the early Fort Moore was already constructed and paved connecting Elysian Park and Downtown by 1926, and since we know US 66 left downtown on Broadway, I don't see why ACSC would first sign US 66 across another road to connect to Main and Mission when that could've been easily done along Broadway itself. I know that the old routings and signings didn't always make sense, but that just seems totally redundant. It seems most probable that US 66 took (west to east) Broadway, Mission/Huntington, Fair Oaks. This would also make sense when the later alignment was sent up Pasadena Ave just after the Broadway Bridge to modern Figueroa.

I wish someone had been making notes back then as to the alignments and streets, since it seems the ACSC liked to play around with alignments. I guess at that point though, once the highway traffic reached the city limits, they would just take whatever road had the least traffic, signs be damned lol.

Part of my discussion of Main Street being the original main route to the north and east from L.A. was referencing that Main served as such for many years, even prior to the US highway numbering system.  From Pueblo days, Main Street was the Calle Principal, literally the Main Street, since it was the longest street and the only one to extend in the N-S direction beyond the pueblo boundaries.  This is mainly because Main was routed away from the hills like Ft Moore hill that wasn't tunneled until 1926.

So while Main may have been the main way to the north and east since stagecoach days, it wasn't the main route to Pasadena by the time that the US highways were brought to California, as the tunnel made the Broadway routing into the main routing to Pasadena.  Main Street would still be the connection towards Valley Blvd and the east.

Another comment:  The naming of the streets often tells the story.  The earlier discussion about San Bernardino Road being an early routing between LA and SB rings true.  It may have been the original routing before US 66 was routed.  To the extent that it was easier to plow through a new routing that didn't make all the turns that SB Rd did, the new routing overtook the old routing in importance.  So Foothill Blvd became the main routing between SB and Pasadena.

Another example, San Fernando Road.  As discussed above, until Figueroa was built, US 99 stayed on the east side of the river making the connection btwn San Fernando Road and Valley Blvd by way of Ave 20 and North Main.  But how would traffic from Downtown LA reach San Fernando in those days?  Following the main route to Pasadena (Broadway to Pasadena Ave) and then turning left on San Fernando Road.  This is why the street is only known as San Fernando Road north of Pasadena Ave (to the south, it changes its name to Ave 20). 

mrsman

Quote from: Exit58 on May 16, 2019, 03:15:22 PM
I've been doing more research on US 66 in the LA area and a few oddities have popped up and I was wondering if someone could give me some clarification. According to the-route66.com, there was a very short lived (1935 only), but completely different alignment of US 66 through Eagle Rock. This was before the 1936 realignment to Santa Monica, so US 66 still left LA on Broadway but instead of taking Broadway, Huntington and Fair Oaks to Pasadena, it instead turned left onto Ave 20 which becomes San Fernando Rd a block north of there. It continued on San Fernando to Verdugo, where it switch to the almost-parallel Eagle Rock Blvd before curving east into Eagle Rock itself. It then turned right onto Colorado and meets the 1936 alignment at Figueroa. Was this some sort of construction bypass due to the Arroyo Seco being built, an oddity or just not true? I can't seem to find any other concrete info on this besides the-route66.

I also found on a topography map on Historic Aerials that Huntington did not go east of Shamrock Ave in Monrovia until sometime in the 1930s, probably 1938. So when US 66 came down Shamrock, it did not go straight to Huntington instead turning left onto modern Royal Oaks, right onto Highland and left onto Huntington. I say 1938 because that's when the Foothill alignment in Monrovia was bypassed by the Huntington extension, and it would make the most sense. Now, these topography maps have steered me wrong in the past, but it seems to mostly add up. I was wondering if anyone else would be able to confirm because the maps from the time seem to be lacking the definition in order to make this distinction.

Getting back to the original post of this thread, it is interesting that they routed US 66 onto the surface street equivalent routing of CA-2.  Of course, with all the discussion of the freeway gap to Pasadena, especially for trucks, it is often suggested that CA-2 provides a freeway connection from I-5 to 134 and 210 to provide the missing connections since 110 and 710 don't meet 210.

I also find it somewhat unusual that CA allows for a state highway (signed as a US route no less) to have a truck restriction.  The Arroyo Seco Pkwy, former US 66, does not allow heavy trucks.  In New York (and many other states) state highways tend to allow most trucks (with possible exceptions for HAZMATS in tunnels and really large trucks).  The limited access highways without truck access are the parkways, without state highway numbers.

To my knowledge, there has never been signed an official truck route for bringing trucks from Pasadena to Los Angeles nor has any US 66 truck route been designated, even though other US routes that do have some restrictions do have a signed truck route.  (Example:  US 1 and 9 in NJ over the Pulaski Hwy has a signed truck route bypass along Communipaw Ave.)

TheStranger

Quote from: mrsman on May 22, 2019, 11:12:11 AM

Getting back to the original post of this thread, it is interesting that they routed US 66 onto the surface street equivalent routing of CA-2.  Of course, with all the discussion of the freeway gap to Pasadena, especially for trucks, it is often suggested that CA-2 provides a freeway connection from I-5 to 134 and 210 to provide the missing connections since 110 and 710 don't meet 210.

IIRC the only portion of Route 2 that was part of US 66 is the Santa Monica Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard/Hollywood Freeway segments.  In fact, I think between the late 1930s and 1964, all of that was either US 66 alone or US 66/US 101 along Sunset and later the freeway, with Route 2 only being brought back to Santa Monica itself in the 1964 renumbering.  (Which is also to say that the proposed Beverly Hills Freeway along the Santa Monica Freeway corridor most likely would have been US 66 in the era that route was originally planned)


Quote from: mrsman on May 22, 2019, 11:12:11 AM
I also find it somewhat unusual that CA allows for a state highway (signed as a US route no less) to have a truck restriction.  The Arroyo Seco Pkwy, former US 66, does not allow heavy trucks.  In New York (and many other states) state highways tend to allow most trucks (with possible exceptions for HAZMATS in tunnels and really large trucks).  The limited access highways without truck access are the parkways, without state highway numbers.

To my knowledge, there has never been signed an official truck route for bringing trucks from Pasadena to Los Angeles nor has any US 66 truck route been designated, even though other US routes that do have some restrictions do have a signed truck route.  (Example:  US 1 and 9 in NJ over the Pulaski Hwy has a signed truck route bypass along Communipaw Ave.)

The "Parkways disallow trucks" thing seems to be specific to New York State for the most part.

When US 66 used the Arroyo Seco Parkway (Pasadena Freeway), the old surface street routing along Figueroa and Colorado became Alternate US 66 (as well as being the point where Route 11 split off the freeway, pre-1964).  However, that still leaves the segment of the parkway between US 101 and I-5 as truck-restricted with no signed alternate.
Chris Sampang



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