Route 66 via San Fernando?

[NE2]

AASHTO's 1927 log says US 66 goes via "Barstow, Victorville, Pasadena, San Bernardino, Los Angeles to San Fernando". Obviously they mixed up Pasadena and San Berdoo, which casts some doubt on San Fernando. But then there's California's 1928 log: "Beginning at Los Angeles via San Fernando, San Bernardino, Victorville, Barstow".

[Alps]

Something up Sepulveda Blvd. to the San Fernando Valley? There are some strange early routings of US and state highways that got resolved into something a lot saner; could have been playing politics to appease someone.

[NE2]

All I can think of is Foothill from Pasadena to San Fernando. This was a state highway at the time, but Pasadena-LA was not.

[Alps]

All I can think of is Foothill from Pasadena to San Fernando. This was a state highway at the time, but Pasadena-LA was not.

In NJ, routings were oftentimes near but not along a particular road (think NJ 20), or would even follow a county road for the time being. I know CA maintains "gaps" in its system where a state highway "uses" a county highway, but would US 66 have been legislated perhaps to follow roads of this nature - not yet built, or needing to be acquired and upgraded by the state?

[NE2]

Another thing: all of LA-Pasadena may have been inside one of the two cities, so Caltrans would not have needed to maintain it AFAIK.

[frank gifford]

Route 66 went from LA down Santa Monica Blvd. to the city of Santa Monica.  The official end was at Lincoln Blvd. but unofficially it continued to Palisades Park and the Santa Monica Pier a couple blocks away.   

[NE2]

Route 66 went from LA down Santa Monica Blvd. to the city of Santa Monica.

Not until the 1930s, it didn't.

[NE2]

Here too (when it was still planned as 60): http://books.google.com/books?id=IV84AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA181

[DTComposer]

Here too (when it was still planned as 60): http://books.google.com/books?id=IV84AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA181

The listed mileages seemed very specific, so I tried to measure the route out. The 76.6 miles from Barstow to San Bernardino worked out on National Trails Highway/Cajon Boulveard/etc., so I tried to measure the 55.1 miles from 5th and Mt. Vernon in San Bernardino. Using the original routing (which included a jog in Monrovia/Arcadia) measured about 49.9 miles to Colorado and Fair Oaks in Pasadena, so going 5.2 miles from there:

-Going up the LRN 9 corridor towards San Fernando got me to La Canada;
-Continuing on Colorado got me to the east side of Glendale;
-Going down Colorado/Figueroa got me to Highland Park.

In other words, several miles away from San Fernando, Downtown L.A., or even San Fernando Road, so I'm flummoxed what that mileage represents.

Interestingly enough, if I used Huntington Drive from Arcadia, it was 55.1 miles to Cesar Chavez Street (nee Macy Street, U.S. 99) at downtown L.A.

[NE2]

Whoa. That mileage discrepancy is strange, and probably indicates that someone screwed up. Too bad the map isn't scanned.

Adding 149.6 for SBD to El Centro almost matches the entry for LA to El Centro here: http://books.google.com/books?id=1jQjAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA75

Definitely looks like the list was supposed to say LA, not San Fernando.

[DTComposer]

So now, in looking for some more information, I found these:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239599~5511899:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_Date&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=76&trs=86

This definitely shows U.S. 66 using the Foothill Blvd. corridor from Pasadena to San Fernando.

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239601~5511906:-Verso--Road-Map-of-the-State-of-Ca?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_Date&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=77&trs=86

http://fpk.homestead.com/files/lamap1926.jpg

Meanwhile, these both show U.S. 99 using that corridor from San Fernando to Pasadena (i.e. not going to downtown L.A. at all), then following the U.S. 66 route to San Bernardino, then going on to El Centro.

[NE2]

Well damn. I'd discount Rand McNally, but pre-Caltrans probably knew what they were doing.

[bugo]

Maps from that era are notoriously inaccurate.

[NE2]

Maps from that era are notoriously inaccurate.

Not really. The main problems were with maps jumping the gun on the U.S. Routes before they were finalized. But here the California official map from 1930 shows US 66 to San Fernando.

[bugo]

Maps from that era are notoriously inaccurate.

Not really. The main problems were with maps jumping the gun on the U.S. Routes before they were finalized. But here the California official map from 1930 shows US 66 to San Fernando.

Yes, they are.  Compare the road lines on a '20s map to a current map.  Roads with lots of curves are shown as perfectly straight roads.  The cartography is often sloppy and it appears they guessed how the roads ran.

[NE2]

holy crap the DC Metro system map is inaccurate

It's a deliberate decision to not show every curve. Some larger-scale maps did, in fact, show them all: http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~201708~3000668:Commercial-Atlas-of-America--Rand-M

[NE2]

Looking at the 1930 California map again, I'm thinking again that it may have been a screwup on the part of whoever added the shields to the map wanting to follow only the state highways, given that the LA inset on the back side does not have US 66 there.