Everything you always wanted to know about Los Angeles freeway history and engineering but were afraid to ask. We cover local state highways too.
LA, Orange & Ventura Counties
Joined April 2018
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Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
🚧 PCH SOUTH OF DEER CREEK ROAD 🚧
In advance of an El Nino winter, crews are repairing this slope along State Route 1 in Ventura Co. with Rock Slope Protection.👇
Boulders are dropped to the beach & placed by an excavator. Expect intermittent traffic control 7AM > 3PM weekdays
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
In 2023, a storm blew off the right panel of the "Golden State Fwy" sign on the 134 East, revealing the pre-1965 route number (99) for the 5 Fwy.
Caltrans overlayed the old route with a new "5" sign. Meant to be a stopgap, we're still stuck with "Golden Sta" 3.5 years later. 😏
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
Night view looking west over Santa Ana Fwy (the 101) from the “Chinese Wall” at Union Station, #DTLA, 1962. Apparently “the Chinese Wall” was a nickname for the retaining wall along Aliso St. I assume a nod to how Union Station was built where LA’s original Chinatown had been.
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
Northbound Harbor Freeway (I-110) at the Century Freeway (I-105) interchange. A civil engineering marvel!
@FreewaysLA , do you have a favorite interchange?
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
Mountains
Freeways
Homes on hills
Blue skies
Wispy clouds
Helicopter
Palm trees
Somehow, all of these elements combine to make the Greatest City on the Globe🌎🙏
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
🚨WATCH: @USDOTFHWA unveils the NEW highway sign to celebrate the historic 70-year legacy of our Interstate Highway System 🇺🇸
Launched under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, it became the greatest public works project in history and completely transformed how we connect in America 🛣️
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
Imagine how it must have felt driving on the Arroyo Seco Parkway into #DLTA knowing that you’ll soon be breathing in all the stinky gunk hanging over the city like a shroud. It’s so thick you can almost taste it through your screen! This photo was taken on January 13, 1948.
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
Imagine continuing on the 2 Fwy north of Glendale & reaching Antelope Valley in 20 minutes.
A tunnel route for cars AND rail under the San Gabriels was proposed in the '60s but woulda cost $10 billion (in today's $'s). It was also billed as an escape route if Russians attacked.
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
Striking 1959 shot facing south across the Harbor Freeway as it slices thru #DTLA. We can see the lit-up tower of the Richfield Oil building at 555 S. Flower St. I assume this was captured at dusk and those orange-red strips were the blurred taillights of the evening peak hour.
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
In 1963, plans were underway to re-number freeways & highways in Calif. Look closely and you'll see a portion of the Santa Ana Fwy co-signed as I-105, and portion of the San Bernardino Fwy as I-110. Ultimately, these plans never came to fruition. [Map courtesy of Jim K. Georges]
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
Heading to the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley on I-80.
#Election2020results
#ELECTION2020
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
In 1963 Caltrans outlined their vision for a massive interchange near today's Pepperdine.
This is a northeast view of what would've been Whitnall-Malibu Fwy (thru today's Malibu Canyon) meeting Pacific Coast Fwy (a converted PCH).
Public outcry stopped further progress of both.
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
One closing thought on the 2025 #WorldSeries Champion Dodgers:
This team won a World Series a year ago, meaning they had a shorter break than all but one other team leading into the year.
They opened the season in Japan March 18th while all but one other team started a week later.
They played 4 postseason series, the most of any team in baseball team this year.
The #Dodgers are the definition of being physically, mentally, and emotionally tough. Even when their backs were against the wall, they never stopped fighting. They taxed their bodies and it did not matter. Yamamoto nearly pitched 4 times in the World Series alone.
What a year for a team that had very little rest and a lot of pressure on them throughout the entire year.
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
When the 4-Level (world's first) opened in DTLA in 1953, it spawned tons of postcards.
I love this "family" (with moody teenager) posing by the side of the 110-to-101-N connector. Sloppily photoshopped in, they look like giants, plus they're breaking the no-peds law of fwys.
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
MTA's proposal of a monorail over the 405? Been there, done that. After Disneyland opened its monorail in 1959, Alweg & other firms drafted monorails for freeways, like the 101 thru DTLA. But as new modes, there were concerns parts would be hard to come by if there were problems.
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
I didn’t think LA’s congested freeways were already bumper to bumper like this by the early 1960s. This is the Hollywood Freeway (aka “the 101”) as the traffic s-l-o-w-l-y snakes its way out of downtown Los Angeles heading west into the San Fernando Valley.
Freeways of Los Angeles retweeted
Ever wondered about the ruins of a building on the east side of PCH by California Incline? It was a series of beach clubs, including the Sorrento Beach Club in this 1936 photo. The structure was demo'd in the early '60s. The backside was left as a retaining wall against erosion.
