State Route 110 (California)

For the Pasadena Freeway in the Houston, Texas area, see Pasadena Freeway (Houston).

State Route 110 extends from Interstate 10 and Interstate 110 in Los Angeles, California to Glenarm Street in Pasadena, California, United States. The entire route is legally named the Pasadena Freeway. However, "Harbor Freeway" does appear on freeway signs on the segment from Interstate 10 to U.S. Route 101 in Los Angeles.

Until the early 2000's the route continued from Glenarm Street to Colorado Boulevard (in Pasadena) via Arroyo Parkway, a surface street. From US 101, the Hollywood Freeway, to Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, State Route 110 was part of U.S. Route 66. In addition to being known as the Pasadena Freeway, the segment of State Route 110 between Interstate 5, the Golden State Freeway, in Los Angeles and Glenarm Street in Pasadena is known as the Historic Arroyo Seco Parkway, and has been declared a National Scenic Byway.

Interstate 110, the State Route's southern extension to San Pedro, is also legislatively Route 110. A short surface alignment along Gaffey Street to Ninth Street south of the end of I-110 at State Route 47 in San Pedro, was once a segment of State Route 110.

Pasadena Freeway

A nine-mile (14 km), dedicated cycleway was built in 1897 by a private business to connect Pasadena to Los Angeles. Its right of way followed the stream bed of the Arroyo Seco and required 1,250,000 board feet (2,950 m³) of pine wood to construct. The roundtrip toll was $0.15 (USD), and the cycleway was lit with electric lights along its entire length. The enterprise was not financially successful, so eventually the structure was dismantled and the wood was sold for a profit. The right of way later became the route for the Arroyo Seco Parkway.

The original freeway was designed by Spencer Cortelyou and was first named the Arroyo Seco Parkway. It had no highway number designation when it first opened and originally had a speed limit of 45 miles an hour (70 km/h). Traffic originally ran in two lanes in each direction with a wide shoulder available for emergency parking. The original route of this Parkway — its 1940 appellation — ran from the Chinatown district in downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena, and was later extended to meet the Hollywood Freeway and Santa Ana Freeway. It was one of the first modern urban freeways built in the United States. The Parkway opened to traffic on December 30, 1940; a writer for the New York Times noted that it was one of the "outstanding highway improvements in the country."

The original portion of the Pasadena Freeway is considered by today's standards to be obsolete and rather dangerous. In its current six-lane configuration, there are no shoulders, although there are periodic turnouts that one can swerve into during an emergency.

Entry or exit from the freeway is a death-defying feat due to its dangerously short ramps; motorists have complained about them since the freeway opened, but the ramps have never been fixed.Cecilia Rasmussen, "Behind the Wheel: Harrowing Drive on State's Oldest Freeway — Curvy, quirky 110 carries motorists between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena," Los Angeles Times, 6 November 2001, 2.

An excellent example is the Avenue 52 intersection in Highland Park. At this point the freeway is depressed and Avenue 52 passes over it. There is one on-ramp and one off-ramp in each direction, each perhaps 100 feet (30 meters) in length. At the bottom of the on-ramp there is actually a limit line and a stop sign. Freeway users must stop at the line, wait for an opening in traffic, and then accelerate from a complete stop directly into traffic moving at 55 mph — there is no acceleration lane.

Exiting the freeway entails pulling onto the off-ramp while still at speed and skidding to a stop. While the freeway is posted for 55 mph (90 km/h), most drivers regard the speed limit as nothing more than guidelines.

When traveling from Los Angeles into South Pasadena, there is a set of sharp, sweeping turns required to keep the freeway within the bounds of the canyon. Since the original design envisioned a much slower traffic flow, these turns are not banked. The speed through them is reduced, but driving this freeway for the first time can be, even for an experienced driver, a hair-raising experience. Despite all this, the freeway is still heavily used by drivers, as it remains the most direct route between Los Angeles and Pasadena for automobiles.

Four medium-sized tunnels (called the "Figueroa Street Tunnels") run under and through the hills of Elysian Park. In the northward direction (toward Pasadena), stairways and bus pads can still be seen to the left before the tunnels. These remnants date from the days when the Arroyo Seco Parkway was first opened, and are no longer in use.

The Pasadena Freeway runs through heavily working-class Latino neighborhoods such as Lincoln Heights and Highland Park, as well as upper-middle-class white populated portions of Pasadena and South Pasadena (these generalizations about ethnicity are drawn from U.S. Census data).

Extension of route

Since its original opening, the freeway has been extended southwards from the four level interchange near downtown Los Angeles to the port of Los Angeles, in San Pedro. The Harbor Freeway runs through the poorer inner-city sections — with a predominantly African American population — of South Los Angeles. The Harbor Freeway is entirely within the city of Los Angeles except a four-mile stretch where it marks the boundary between Carson, California and an unincorporated area in the South Bay. Because this section of freeway is up to Interstate Highway standards, it is much wider and is far safer to drive than the older Pasadena-to-Los Angeles route.

Landmarks and filmography

Some famous landmarks along or nearby the Interstate 110 Harbor Freeway include the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Shrine Auditorium (where several major film, TV, and music awards are presented), Staples Center (home of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers and NHL's Kings), Chinatown, Dodger Stadium (home of the MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers), and the Southwest Museum (a museum dedicated to Native American culture).

Tucked within the southwest loop of the intersection with Interstate 10 is the Central Los Angeles office of the California Highway Patrol. It was heavily photographed for the 1970s U.S. television program CHiPs, as it was depicted as the home office of its main characters, Officers Jon Baker and Frank Poncherello. It does not have direct access to or from either freeway, though.

During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a white truck driver named Reginald Denny was pulled from his truck and beaten on an intersection, Florence Avenue and Normandie Street, about a mile (2 km) west from the 110 Freeway. The incident was broadcast live via news helicopter.

The Pasadena Freeway can be seen in the introduction of the 1971 Steven Spielberg film, Duel. Dennis Weaver's character drives through several tunnels before entering the Interstate 5 interchange (which leads to Sacramento and beyond).

Citizen involvement

In 2001, Richard Ankrom, a local artist, who repeatedly got lost trying to get onto Interstate 5 North from the 110 Freeway because there was no clear official signage labeling access to the 5 North, solved his frustration by covertly modifying one of the overhead signs on the freeway just before the tunnels. Using official government sign specifications, Ankrom fabricated two sign pieces, one being an Interstate marker shield with the number '5' on it, and one with the word "NORTH", and affixed them to the left side of the sign. He performed his modifications in broad daylight, disguised as a CalTrans worker, and the results went unnoticed for nine months, until his friend leaked the news to the Los Angeles Times.

Prior to Ankrom's work, the only signage directing motorists to the 5 North off-ramp came at a quarter-mile before the exit, thus forcing many to merge across multiple lanes in a very short distance. The unofficial modifications remain on the sign to this day, after having been inspected by CalTrans to ensure it would not fall off onto the road below. CalTrans is gradually upgrading all California freeway signs to a newer, more reflective form; when this happens on the 110, Ankrom's work will be lost, but the new sign will include "5 North" icons.

Ankrom was never charged, despite statements from officials that his actions were illegal.

See http://www.thisistrue.com/freeway.html for a picture of Ankrom's work.

State law

Legal Definition of Route 110: California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 3, Section 410

Route 110 from Route 10 to Pasadena is known as the Pasadena Freeway. Highway Commission (11/18/1954)

Source: 2004 Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances in California (PDF)

Trivia

The name Arroyo Seco in Spanish means Dry Wash.

Alternate transportation

There exists an alternate way of getting from Los Angeles to Pasadena. The Metro Gold Line, on the former AT&SF Pasadena Subdivision right-of-way, offers "quick, convenient transit" from Pasadena to Los Angeles, with various intermediate stops.

Exit list

Interstate 110 South - San Pedro Interstate 10 - Santa Monica Freeway; Santa Ana; Santa Monica U.S. Route 101 North - Hollywood; To Interstate 5 South; Interstate 10 East - Santa Ana; San Bernardino Interstate 5 North - Golden State Freeway; Sacramento Interstate 5 - Sacramento; Santa Ana

PostmileJanuary 1, 2006 California Log of Bridges on State Highways	Municipality	#Cal-NExUS Interchange Exit Numbering	Destinations	Notes
LA 21.44	Los Angeles		Southbound exit and northbound entrance
LA 21.44		21	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
LA 22.12		22A	Olympic Boulevard	No northbound exit; southbound exit accessible via Blaine St; northbound and soutbound entrance accessible via 11th St
LA 22.27		22-23A	Downtown - 9th Street; 6th Street	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; old Exit 22A
LA 22.27 LA 22.44		22B	8th Street; 9th Street	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; old exit 22B
		23B-C	4th Street; 3rd Street	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; old exit 22B
		23C-B-A	6th Street; 4th Street - Wilshire Boulevard; Downtown; 3rd Street	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
LA 23.73		24A	Four Level Interchange
		24B	Sunset Boulevard	Southbound exit and northbound entrance, accessible via Figueroa St; old exit 24A
LA 24.55		24C	Civic Center; Hill Street	No southbound entrance; Southbound left exit is combined with Exit 24B; old exit 24B southbound
LA 24.73		24D	Stadium Way - Dodger Stadium; Hill Street	Exit 24B northbound; old exit 24 northbound and 24C southbound
LA 25.04		25	Solano Avenue; Academy Road	Old exit 25 northbound
LA 25.75		26A	Northbound left exit and southbound entrance
LA 25.78		26B	Figueroa Street	Northbound left exit and southbound entrance; old exit 26
LA 25.91		26A	Avenue 26	southbound exit and northbound entrance
LA 25.75		26B	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
LA 27.12		27	Avenue 43
LA 28.05		28A	Avenue 52
LA 28.38		28B	Via Marisol	Southbound exit and entrance accessible via Avenue 57
LA 28.76		29	Avenue 60
LA 29.28		30A	Marmion Way; Avenue 64	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
LA 29.50		30	York Boulevard	Southbound exit and entrance, accessible via Bridewell St
		30B	Bridewell Street	Northbound exit only
LA 30.59	South Pasadena	31A	Orange Grove Avenue
LA 31.17		31B	Fair Oaks Avenue	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
LA 31.17		31B	Fair Oaks Avenue - South Pasadena	Southbound exit only, accessible via State St
LA 31.9			Glenarm Street	At-grade intersection

References

External links

Historic American Engineering Record, Arroyo Seco Parkway - text (alternate link (PDF)), drawings and photos
Arroyo Seco Parkway preservation site
Arroyo Seco Historic Parkway at America's Byways U.S. Dept. of Transportation
A textual account of Ankrom's sign modification
California Highways - Interstate 110
California's Great Cycle-Way
Pasadena Freeway - Various pictures of Pasadena portion

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