US 6 questions

[coatimundi]

After Newhall Pass how do I follow the original alignment of US 6?

Here's what I recall (feel free to correct me if I'm off) was the pre-freeway alignments:

San Fernando Road from Sylmar to Avenue 26 near Dodger Stadium (this is also former US 99)
Avenue 26 to Figueroa Street
Figueroa Street (including today's Route 110/Arroyo Seco Parkway through the tunnels) south to PCH/Route 1 in Wilmington.  Co-signed with old Route 11 for just about that entire length, IIRC.
PCH/Route 1 southbound (actual direction eastbound) to Atlantic Avenue (old Route 15) in Long Beach

Note that the western (southern) terminus of US 6 in Long Beach was cut back to today's I-710/Long Beach Freeway in the late 1950s

I could be wrong, but I had always thought there was some evidence that 6 had possibly gotten to Los Alamitos Circle at some point. There was no real proof, but also nothing to disprove it. Just what I had read about it.

At some point around 1950, Truman Street was built within the City of San Fernando and US 6 & 99 north/east bound traffic was routed onto it while opposing traffic remained on San Fernando Road, and both operated as one-way streets. Sometime in the late 50's or early 60's, both were re-routed to use solely Truman Street, likely because thru traffic became a problem on the commercial strip within Downtown San Fernando.
There's also a break in Burbank: San Fernando Road goes right through what is now the Burbank Town Center. The street was closed in 1967 for the "Golden Mall" (a pedestrian mall similar to 3rd Street in Santa Monica, from the pictures) while what's there now was built in 1991. Today, you can actually walk its path as the mall has a hallway that leads right into Macy's, then out the Macy's door and onto the street, you're facing San Fernando Road again.

What's always been crazy to me is how much has been retained from the Arroyo Seco Parkway configuration. Those slip ramps that reach Figueroa are original to its 1940 construction.

If you ever follow the entire existing route, be sure to take the detour to Grand Central Terminal, south of Downtown Burbank. This was the original air terminal for Los Angeles, and the original runway is now Grand Central Avenue. Disney owns it and has restored it to much of its original art deco glory, and it seemed like they were intending on opening it to the public in some way. I was through there a few months ago, and the building was closed, but they had a lot of interpretive signs up in the back, as well as a stage.

[sparker]

After Newhall Pass how do I follow the original alignment of US 6?

Here's what I recall (feel free to correct me if I'm off) was the pre-freeway alignments:

San Fernando Road from Sylmar to Avenue 26 near Dodger Stadium (this is also former US 99)
Avenue 26 to Figueroa Street
Figueroa Street (including today's Route 110/Arroyo Seco Parkway through the tunnels) south to PCH/Route 1 in Wilmington.  Co-signed with old Route 11 for just about that entire length, IIRC.
PCH/Route 1 southbound (actual direction eastbound) to Atlantic Avenue (old Route 15) in Long Beach

Note that the western (southern) terminus of US 6 in Long Beach was cut back to today's I-710/Long Beach Freeway in the late 1950s

I could be wrong, but I had always thought there was some evidence that 6 had possibly gotten to Los Alamitos Circle at some point. There was no real proof, but also nothing to disprove it. Just what I had read about it.

At some point around 1950, Truman Street was built within the City of San Fernando and US 6 & 99 north/east bound traffic was routed onto it while opposing traffic remained on San Fernando Road, and both operated as one-way streets. Sometime in the late 50's or early 60's, both were re-routed to use solely Truman Street, likely because thru traffic became a problem on the commercial strip within Downtown San Fernando.
There's also a break in Burbank: San Fernando Road goes right through what is now the Burbank Town Center. The street was closed in 1967 for the "Golden Mall" (a pedestrian mall similar to 3rd Street in Santa Monica, from the pictures) while what's there now was built in 1991. Today, you can actually walk its path as the mall has a hallway that leads right into Macy's, then out the Macy's door and onto the street, you're facing San Fernando Road again.

What's always been crazy to me is how much has been retained from the Arroyo Seco Parkway configuration. Those slip ramps that reach Figueroa are original to its 1940 construction.

If you ever follow the entire existing route, be sure to take the detour to Grand Central Terminal, south of Downtown Burbank. This was the original air terminal for Los Angeles, and the original runway is now Grand Central Avenue. Disney owns it and has restored it to much of its original art deco glory, and it seemed like they were intending on opening it to the public in some way. I was through there a few months ago, and the building was closed, but they had a lot of interpretive signs up in the back, as well as a stage.

After Newhall Pass how do I follow the original alignment of US 6?

Here's what I recall (feel free to correct me if I'm off) was the pre-freeway alignments:

San Fernando Road from Sylmar to Avenue 26 near Dodger Stadium (this is also former US 99)
Avenue 26 to Figueroa Street
Figueroa Street (including today's Route 110/Arroyo Seco Parkway through the tunnels) south to PCH/Route 1 in Wilmington.  Co-signed with old Route 11 for just about that entire length, IIRC.
PCH/Route 1 southbound (actual direction eastbound) to Atlantic Avenue (old Route 15) in Long Beach

Note that the western (southern) terminus of US 6 in Long Beach was cut back to today's I-710/Long Beach Freeway in the late 1950s

I could be wrong, but I had always thought there was some evidence that 6 had possibly gotten to Los Alamitos Circle at some point. There was no real proof, but also nothing to disprove it. Just what I had read about it.

At some point around 1950, Truman Street was built within the City of San Fernando and US 6 & 99 north/east bound traffic was routed onto it while opposing traffic remained on San Fernando Road, and both operated as one-way streets. Sometime in the late 50's or early 60's, both were re-routed to use solely Truman Street, likely because thru traffic became a problem on the commercial strip within Downtown San Fernando.
There's also a break in Burbank: San Fernando Road goes right through what is now the Burbank Town Center. The street was closed in 1967 for the "Golden Mall" (a pedestrian mall similar to 3rd Street in Santa Monica, from the pictures) while what's there now was built in 1991. Today, you can actually walk its path as the mall has a hallway that leads right into Macy's, then out the Macy's door and onto the street, you're facing San Fernando Road again.

What's always been crazy to me is how much has been retained from the Arroyo Seco Parkway configuration. Those slip ramps that reach Figueroa are original to its 1940 construction.

If you ever follow the entire existing route, be sure to take the detour to Grand Central Terminal, south of Downtown Burbank. This was the original air terminal for Los Angeles, and the original runway is now Grand Central Avenue. Disney owns it and has restored it to much of its original art deco glory, and it seemed like they were intending on opening it to the public in some way. I was through there a few months ago, and the building was closed, but they had a lot of interpretive signs up in the back, as well as a stage.

US 6 never ventured as far east as the traffic circle; the farthest it got was Atlantic Ave. (then pre-freeway SSR 15), where it met its western terminus at the same point that post-1947 US 91 met its southern one (later moved to the Long Beach Freeway/PCH interchange), coming in from the east. 

The San Fernando/Truman couplet was revamped as cited above in 1964, a year after the I-5 freeway was completed as far as Newhall Pass and the former route was relinquished to the City of San Fernando, which had long desired to remove traffic from their main downtown street.  In Burbank, the old US 6/99 alignment originally just went down San Fernando Road as well, but after WWII was shifted to Front Street along the SP tracks; the facility was a channelized 4-lane expressway with signals on the main cross streets but no private access.  It extended as far south as Providencia St., where it turned east (SB direction) a block back to its original San Fernando Road alignment.  That was always a traffic nightmare, as Providencia was never widened but restriped as 4 lanes (if they were at least 10' wide, I'd certainly be surprised) to handle the highway traffic.  That arrangement lasted until late 1957, when the original Golden State Freeway segment between Glendale Blvd. in L.A.'s Atwater district and Alameda Ave. in Burbank was opened; a temporary alignment via Victory Blvd., a few blocks west of the freeway's route, took US 6/99 through Burbank until the freeway was extended north to Burbank Blvd in late 1959; most of the extension sat atop the old Front Street routing. 

Grand Central Avenue, which is actually in Glendale (my home town), was built about 1958-59 within the old Grand Central Airport grounds.  Disney bought a considerable amount of land in the industrial park that replaced the airfield; they located their "Imagineering" division, which was their R & D branch -- most of the post-1959 rides at Disneyland and, later, Disney World (as well as the ensuing overseas Disney parks) were designed and built in the complex in the old Grand Central area.  (Disclaimer:  my mother was an animation artist at Disney for 40 years, retiring in 1983; I grew up with all things Disney!).  Most of the old Imagineering function eventually ended up either back within the original Disney "campus" on Buena Vista St. in Burbank or at the animation complex at Epcot Center in Florida. 

[coatimundi]

US 6 never ventured as far east as the traffic circle; the farthest it got was Atlantic Ave. (then pre-freeway SSR 15), where it met its western terminus at the same point that post-1947 US 91 met its southern one (later moved to the Long Beach Freeway/PCH interchange), coming in from the east. 

I know it almost certainly never reached the circle, but I like the idea of it ending there. Just a much more ceremonial place to end, though I would guess that the PCH/Atlantic intersection was just a bit more glamorous than it is today.

The San Fernando/Truman couplet was revamped as cited above in 1964, a year after the I-5 freeway was completed as far as Newhall Pass and the former route was relinquished to the City of San Fernando, which had long desired to remove traffic from their main downtown street.  In Burbank, the old US 6/99 alignment originally just went down San Fernando Road as well, but after WWII was shifted to Front Street along the SP tracks; the facility was a channelized 4-lane expressway with signals on the main cross streets but no private access.  It extended as far south as Providencia St., where it turned east (SB direction) a block back to its original San Fernando Road alignment.  That was always a traffic nightmare, as Providencia was never widened but restriped as 4 lanes (if they were at least 10' wide, I'd certainly be surprised) to handle the highway traffic.  That arrangement lasted until late 1957, when the original Golden State Freeway segment between Glendale Blvd. in L.A.'s Atwater district and Alameda Ave. in Burbank was opened; a temporary alignment via Victory Blvd., a few blocks west of the freeway's route, took US 6/99 through Burbank until the freeway was extended north to Burbank Blvd in late 1959; most of the extension sat atop the old Front Street routing. 
Burbank or at the animation complex at Epcot Center in Florida.

Excellent info, as always from you, and I had forgotten to add the Front Street alignment (of which, the San Fernando Road to Burbank Boulevard segment was reused by I-5) of US 6.
I would guess the Providencia routing was mostly to, again, keep traffic off of a main commercial strip.