April 15: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History

Written by Kenn Bicknell

1953: Los Angeles County appropriates funds for the start of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority‘s engineering and economic studies for the San Fernando-Long Beach Monorail Study.

Monorail route map — Report map depicting monorail’s Los Angeles River route (Click for more information)

This marks the first time that public money is set aside to study the viability of monorail service for Los Angeles.

The joint study by Coverdale and Colpitts, Donald Baker, and Gibbs and Hill costs $270,000.

The study concludes that the LAMTA does not have the appropriate authority to finance the project, thus laying the ground work for reassessment of the agency, its powers, and its jurisdictions.

1954: The last link of the Hollywood Freeway officially opens. The final section is between Hollywood Boulevard and the Mulholland Bridge.

The original pavement of the old Ventura Boulevard through the Cahuenga Pass was constructed in 1910. The Cahuenga Pass Freeway replaced it in 1940, consisting of four lanes in each direction with Pacific Electric streetcar tracks in the center divider.

While the Hollywood Freeway is now 10 miles long, its completion means that there is now 24 miles of freeway stretching from Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk to Vineland Avenue in the San Fernando Valley.

The first section of the Hollywood Freeway opened December 27, 1950.

More information can be found in the May-June, 1954 issue of California Highways and Public Works.

1973: Southern California Rapid Transit District inaugurates major improvements to San Fernando Valley bus service.