I have driven past the Hollywood Tower apartment building (that’s the white one on the left) so many times it’s hard to imagine that urban landscape without the Hollywood Freeway slicing through it. But it was somebody’s job to imagine it and then someone else’s job to build it. This photo shows us the construction of the bridge over Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood in 1952. When I saw this photo, my first thought was “Ugh! Imagine how badly snarled the street traffic would have been.” I assume was a long, long project, so I bet local drivers were relieved when the freeway finally opened for business.
This photo make me so angry at whoever let my wonderful Los Angeles loose her amazing rail system and doom us to cloged freeways. Just cannot get over this tragedy. I do love all your vintage photos of old Hollywood, but this reminder of what happened way back, it just makes me sick.
Wow. I remember this well. A number of wonderful houses were torn down between Yucca and Franklin to make way for the freeway.
During the winter of 1952 it rained heavily, turning all of the dirt excavated for the foundation of the bridge across Gower St. to a deep thick mud into which I plunged one of the rain boots one morning, only to have it remain buried in the mud while my foot pulled free.
I have driven past the Hollywood Tower apartment building (that’s the white one on the left) so many times it’s hard to imagine that urban landscape without the Hollywood Freeway slicing through it. But it was somebody’s job to imagine it and then someone else’s job to build it. This photo shows us the construction of the bridge over Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood in 1952. When I saw this photo, my first thought was “Ugh! Imagine how badly snarled the street traffic would have been.” I assume was a long, long project, so I bet local drivers were relieved when the freeway finally opened for business.
This photo make me so angry at whoever let my wonderful Los Angeles loose her amazing rail system and doom us to cloged freeways. Just cannot get over this tragedy. I do love all your vintage photos of old Hollywood, but this reminder of what happened way back, it just makes me sick.
Richard – does it provide any comfort to know that you’re not alone in your frustration…?!?!?
Wow. I remember this well. A number of wonderful houses were torn down between Yucca and Franklin to make way for the freeway.
During the winter of 1952 it rained heavily, turning all of the dirt excavated for the foundation of the bridge across Gower St. to a deep thick mud into which I plunged one of the rain boots one morning, only to have it remain buried in the mud while my foot pulled free.