In this photo, we’re looking southwest toward Hollywood along the Hollywood Freeway as it stakes through the Cahuenga Pass. This photo was dated at 1940, and as this stretch of the Hollywood Freeway (aka “the 101”) opened to the public on June 15, 1940, I’m guessing that the photo was taken not long after the freeway opened. This would explain why there are so few cars. The 101 is the main freeway into downtown Los Angeles, so these days it’s nearly always packed. As a frequent user of this freeway, it’s actually quite shocking to see it this empty. Those tracks running down the center were for the streetcars and that bridge is the Mulholland Drive overpass.
This 2022 satellite photo shows that same area today. The streetcar lines are gone, of course, and the land is more developed but only in spots. The rest is still open.
Cahuenga West is in the original location. Freeway (inbound) West is where the electric rail line was. Everything eastside was created by tearing out the hills, shifting the rail line over, creating the Freeway (outbound) East, and adding Cahuenga East. The original early ideas for Mulholland was to continue the road across the eastside ridges. What’s clear is that any future expansion of the freeway would require total elimination of rail service, and that’s exactly the plan they were projecting in the backrooms. This deal was done and sealed before any dirt was moved. Didn’t take long to start the process of whacking out neighborhoods for the rest of the cold concrete calamities. Some future..it’ll take a hundred more years to unwind it all if they get lucky.