CA 134

[Max Rockatansky]

While visiting the Los Angeles area recently I drove the entirety of CA 134 on the Ventura Freeway and ran much of it while staying in Eagle Rock.  CA 134 does have an interesting alignment history in that it wasn't part of the original run of 1934 State Highways and had numerous alignment shifts before the Ventura Freeway was completed.  Of note; while 1935 is often the year CA 134 is cited as being signed it doesn't appear on maps from said year or in a Department of Public Works publications noting the changes to signed highways.  CA 134 originally had a redundant alignment with US 101 west of LRN 159 which was later truncated before the Ventura Freeway built up.  There are also remaining stub portions of former CA 134 on limited access roadways like the Colorado Freeway over Arroyo Seco and Colorado Street Freeway Extension over the Los Angeles River.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2019/06/california-state-route-134.html

So open question, any thoughts on when CA 134 was first signed?  It certainly doesn't appear that it was 1935 based off the Department of Public Works guide from October.

[sparker]

^^^^^^^^
My memories as a kid -- since 134 ran right through my hometown of Glendale on either Colorado St. or San Fernando Road (with US 6/99) was that 134 signage was there when I was old enough to recognize it (ca. 1956 or so).  Most of the shields on the shared alignment with the US highways were button-copy "bear" shields; IIRC these weren't deployed until just before or after WWII; the previous standard had simple black numbers.  Colorado St. (in Glendale) and Blvd. (Eagle Rock) had a mixture of those shields, indicating signage at least a few years pre-WWII.  A concentration of the old non-button-copy shields could be found along Alameda Ave. and Riverside Drive in Burbank; the "trailblazer" direction signage indicating the route shift (WB) from Riverside Drive onto the diagonal Moorpark Place (leading to the westernmost alignment on Moorpark Way), IIRC, were button-copy.  The portion of that route (aka LRN 161) west of Lankershim Blvd./LRN 159 had been relinquished to the city of Los Angeles by the time I first rode on it circa 1957 (to visit relatives who had moved to Sherman Oaks); SSR 134 was clearly shown making the sharp left (south) turn onto Lankershim.  That end of SSR 134 was given short shrift from the original Hollywood Freeway interchange with Lankershim; in the years between my first visit there and when the Ventura Freeway portion of SSR 134 was completed between US 101 and I-5 back in early 1963, there was no indication that Lankershim Blvd. was also SSR 134 from US 101 in either direction. 

I wouldn't be surprised if SSR 134 got signage about the time that US 6 was extended into CA (late '37/early '38); they were already adding US 6 signs to the San Fernando Road section of US 99; and since that multiplex accounted for about 20% of the total length of SSR 134, District 7 likely decided as long as they had signing crews working the area, they may as well address SSR 134 as well (not an uncommon practice with Caltrans or its predecessor!).  And when button-copy came along, all the routes along the multiplexed section were probably replaced at once.   

[Max Rockatansky]

I suppose that begs the question if any Department of Public Works guide has a date when CA 134 was first signed?  I thinking you're probably on the right track with it likely being signed around the same time US 6 was.  It clearly wasn't reference in that October 1935 Guide which makes me think it was more down the road time wise.