Hollywood Freeway

Hollywood Freeway
Route information
Maintained by Caltrans
Major junctions
South end:	US 101 / SR 110 in Los Angeles
	US 101 / SR 134 / SR 170 in North Hollywood
North end:	I-5 in Sun Valley
Highway system
Southern California Freeway System
State highways in California(list • pre-1964) History • Unconstructed • Deleted • Freeway • Scenic

The Hollywood Freeway is one of the principal freeways of Los Angeles, California (the boundaries of which it does not leave) and one of the busiest in the United States. It is the principal route over the Cahuenga Pass, the primary shortcut between the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley. It is considered one of the most important freeways in the history of Los Angeles and instrumental in the development of the San Fernando Valley. It is the second oldest freeway in Los Angeles.

History

Plans for the Hollywood Freeway officially began in 1924 when Los Angeles voters approved a "stop-free express highway" between Downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. The first segment of the Hollywood Freeway built was a one and a half mile stretch through the Cahuenga Pass. That segment opened on June 15, 1940. It was then known as the "Cahuenga Pass Freeway." Pacific Electric Railway trolleys ran down the center of this freeway until 1952. The next section of the freeway that stretched from the San Fernando Valley to Downtown Los Angeles opened on April 16, 1954 at a cost of $55 million. The final section, north of the Ventura Freeway to the Golden State Freeway was completed in 1968.

A year after the Hollywood Freeway opened, it was used by an average of 183,000 vehicles a day, almost double the capacity it was designed to carry. Actor Bob Hope called it the "biggest parking lot in the world" in his routine.

The segment through Hollywood was the first to be built through a heavily populated area and requiring the moving or demolition of many buildings, including Rudolph Valentino's house Falcon's Lair which was moved to Beverly Hills. The freeway was also designed to curve around KTTV Studios and Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Much of the rubble and debris from the buildings removed for the freeway's construction was dumped into Chávez Ravine, the current home to Dodger Stadium.

In 1967, the Hollywood Freeway was the first freeway in California that had ramp meters.

Near the Vermont Avenue exit, there's a seemingly over-wide center strip now filled with trees. This is where the never-built Beverly Hills Freeway was to merge with the Hollywood Freeway. Plans for the Beverly Hills Freeway were halted in the 1970s.

The route

The freeway runs from the Golden State Freeway in the Sun Valley district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley to the Four Level Interchange in downtown Los Angeles. Between the Golden State Freeway and its intersection with the Ventura Freeway in the southeastern San Fernando Valley (also known as the Hollywood Split), it is signed as State Route 170; thereafter, it takes on the more famous designation of U.S. Route 101.

Notable Features

Hollywood Freeway at night with Downtown L.A. in the background.

The Hollywood Freeway is an expansion of the original Cahuenga Parkway, a short six-lane freeway that ran through the Cahuenga Pass between Hollywood and Studio City. The Cahuenga Parkway featured Pacific Electric Railway "Red Car" tracks in its median, but by the 1950s these tracks were out of service due to radical reductions in Red Car service. The Pacific Electric right-of-way later accommodated an additional lane in each direction.

The intersection of the Hollywood and Pasadena Freeways, known as the Four Level Interchange, is one of the major landmarks in Los Angeles and a symbol of the city's post-World War II development.

Legal definition

The Hollywood Freeway is Routes 101 and 170 from Route 110 (Four Level Interchange) to Route 5.

Exit list

Note: Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured in 1964, based on the alignment as it existed at that time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage.

The entire route is in Los Angeles County.

Location	Postmile	#	Destinations	Notes
Los Angeles	1.57		US 101 south to I-5 south (Santa Ana Freeway) / I-10 east (San Bernardino Freeway) / SR 60 east (Pomona Freeway)	Continuation beyond SR 110
	1.62	3B	SR 110 north (Pasadena Freeway) / I-110 south (Harbor Freeway) – Pasadena, San Pedro	Signed as exit 3 northbound
	2.48	4A	Glendale Boulevard, Echo Park Avenue, Union Avenue, Belmont Avenue
	2.86	4B	SR 2 east (Alvarado Street)	South end of SR 2 overlap
	3.34	5A	Rampart Boulevard, Benton Way
	3.76	5B	Silver Lake Boulevard
	4.40	6A	Vermont Avenue
	4.85	6B	Melrose Avenue, Normandie Avenue
	5.55	7	SR 2 west (Santa Monica Boulevard) / Western Avenue	North end of SR 2 overlap
	6.25	8A	Sunset Boulevard	No northbound entrance
	6.52	8B	Hollywood Boulevard
	6.91	8C	Gower Street
	7.06	9A	Vine Street	Southbound exit only
	7.46	9B	Cahuenga Boulevard – Hollywood Bowl	No northbound entrance; signed as exit 9A northbound
	7.84	9C	Highland Avenue (SR 170 south) – Hollywood Bowl	South end of SR 170 overlap; signed as exit 9B northbound
	9.22	11A	Barham Boulevard – Burbank	Signed as exit 11 southbound
	9.60	11B	Universal Studios Boulevard	Northbound exit and entrance; serves Universal Studios Hollywood
	10.34	12A	Lankershim Boulevard – Universal City
	10.56	12B	Ventura Boulevard	No southbound exit
	11.11	12C	Vineland Avenue	Signed as exit 12B southbound
	101 11.75 170 R14.50		US 101 north (Ventura Freeway) – Ventura	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		North end of US 101 overlap
		5B	SR 134 east (Ventura Freeway) – Pasadena	Northbound exit is via exit 12C
	R14.78	6A	Riverside Drive	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	R15.37	6B	Magnolia Boulevard – North Hollywood	Signed as exit 6 northbound
	R15.99	7	Burbank Boulevard
	R16.63	8A	Oxnard Street
	R17.25	8B	Victory Boulevard
	R18.27	9	Sherman Way
	R19.72	10	Roscoe Boulevard
	R20.10	11A	Sheldon Street	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	R20.55	11B	I-5 north (Golden State Freeway) – Sacramento	Northbound exit and southbound entrance

See also

• Hollywood Freeway chickens
• Suggestion of rail transit along freeway, 1948