If L.A.’s freeways still looked like this, I’d probably be inclined to take them more often. We’re looking west up the Hollywood Freeway as it heads into the Cahuenga Pass. Traffic is remarkably light, so I’m guessing this photo was taken not long after this stretch of the 101 opened in June of 1940. In the left-center of the photo, we can see the “Muse of Music, Dance, Drama,” which is the 200-foot long, 22-foot high sculpture at the front of the Hollywood Blvd that was a Depression-era Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Project installed in 1939.

** UPDATE ** – The consensus on social media is that this photo was taken after 1952 because there are not streetcar tracks running up the middle of the freeway.

Here’s a lovely photo I found of the “Muse of Music, Dance, Drama” on the Hollywood Bowl website.

Here is a January 2020 satellite photo of that same area.