If this circa late 1950s photo is anything to go by, Los Angeles freeways that resemble a parking lot aren’t a recent development. I’m not 100% certain, but I think we’re looking at the Pasadena Freeway near Elysian Park heading into downtown LA. If other photos I’ve seen of 1950s LA freeways are anything to go by, this urban nightmare scenario was relatively rare, but it does presage what will become a daily reality for many LA commuters.
Heavy traffic backs up the Pasadena Freeway near Elysian Park heading into downtown Los Angeles, circa late 1950s
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Late 50s? Dodger game traffic?
Stadium wasn’t opened when the Bobblehead Bums of ’58 had quit dodging the Brooklyn trolleys and bought their sunglasses. Was it ’60 when they first took to the new field?
Oh, yeah, I forgot that they didn’t have Dodger Stadium until they’d been here a few years.
I always wonder why the photographer was out there…pure chance, or was there an assignment to record something just completed? Notice there are modernized directional signs and yet the antiquated one at the split of the outbound lanes is still standing. Just guessing, but, if there were funding involved in improvement work, some guy would be sent out there to make a nice image for documentation purposes…gotta show where all the money supposedly went. The outbound lanes have come from the old Figueroa tunnels and can access (left) the cut along the hillsides heading down to the bridge crossing the river near the bottom of Taylor Yards at the Dayton Avenue tower. The bridges changed names over time (with replacements) and this routing must have served as a designated connecter highway to go from 66 to 99, thus the 6-99 number (probably state rather than federal). The cars entering the inbound lanes have probably come up from there or maybe an early narrower version of I-5 (we see some kind of sign on the right facing toward the south, so there must be a roadway down there). The Los Angeles River channel would be out of view toward the top but far down below the freeway bridge which we cannot see either. On that far side, there was a lot of cement work to hold the burm in place at the bridge footings as there were rail lines and roads running along the east front of the river.
I count two 1958s in that jam, still could be late 57 since we’d always window shop at the car lots in the fall to see the new models.