Friday, September 28, 2012

San Gabriel Mountain Throughway




There has been a lot of talk about the extension of the 710 into Pasadena lately.  The idea of connecting the San Gabriel Valley with the Antelope Valley in a direct route has been thought about since at least the 1920's.


Various proposals have been floated, one of which was to build a tunnel under the San Gabriels and extend Los Angeles Freeways to the north, opening up the Antelope Valley to urban sprawl just as happened in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valley.


We are lucky in Pasadena and Altadena that the San Gabriel Mountains form such an impenetrable barrier.  If it was more practical, Lake, Fair Oaks and/or Lincoln Avenues would have become multi-lane highways into the new Los Angeles suburb of Antelope Valley.


Fortunately, for the moment at least, our neighborhoods are spared the problems of being the feeder system through Pasadena and Altadena to another sprawling suburban valley.  Thank goodness for the San Gabriel Mountains and the dead ends at the top of Lake, Fair Oaks and Lincoln Avenues!!! 

This rendering was found recently at a local fleamarket and shows what was being proposed back in the early 1950's when the expansion of suburbia was on the mind of Los Angeles.....
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9 comments:

  1. Petrea BurchardSeptember 28, 2012 at 8:45 PM

    My god!
    A) amazing
    B) you always find the best stuff
    C) or should I say the worst?
    D) amazing again

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mister EarlSeptember 28, 2012 at 10:19 PM

    I think they should put a big freeway right through the middle of San Marino, since their City Council favors a 710 Extension!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cafe PasadenaSeptember 29, 2012 at 10:11 AM

    I'm not gonna to remind u how i wish u wood blog more!

    Just wish our area could present a united wall against the 710 (or whatever they may rename the Xtension). That wood all but doom any caltrans/metro plans. But I guess the areas to the south (San Marino, Alhambra & Monty Park) are so different, and c things differently, than we to the north.

    ReplyDelete
  4. GinaSeptember 29, 2012 at 11:05 AM

    Wow. What a fascinating find. Even without such a freeway a great number of people commute to LA from the Antelope Valley. I currently work 3 days a week in El Segundo (an insane commute in its own right) and I have several colleagues who live in Lancaster/ Palmdale driving upwards of 5 hours a day. I shudder to think of all the horrors that a San Gabriel thruway would have perpetrated and enabled.

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  5. Pasadena AdjacentSeptember 29, 2012 at 11:40 AM

    If we nip this multi headed Hydra once and for all, your proposed rendering could come back to haunt us. It's only a matter of discovering the technology that could make it happen. The Crest is already being abused as an above ground passage.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Pasadena AdjacentSeptember 29, 2012 at 11:41 AM

    If we (don't)

    ReplyDelete
  7. frazgoSeptember 30, 2012 at 11:16 AM

    Great find, and a lot of great posts here.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thal ArmathuraOctober 2, 2012 at 9:29 AM

    Hello all! I would like to post more, as I have a lot of material which I think will be of interest, but time constraints make it not possible, unfortunately. In the meantime, I would like to recommend a site which I find fascinating, 400 some pages of Los Angeles (noir), as I used to live in Echo Park/Silverlake and spent a lot of time downtown. Check this out and be sure to look at the older posts:
    http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?s=ca241ed5e43cf781f22032456c1f5e92&t=170279&page=480
    You'll love it, I believe........ So, until my next post, enjoy Noirish Los Angeles!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Petrea BurchardOctober 2, 2012 at 9:31 AM

    Thanks for your great blog, Thal. Post when you can, it's always wonderful.

    ReplyDelete

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