Slide of the Week RSS
"Autopia" Downtown Los Angeles, 1957
Streetlamps with dinosaur necks; speeding cars slowing on sharp curves and macaroni-and-cheese colored traffic signs that match the truck pulling a long, long trailer fashionably two-toned in battleship grey and lipstick red. This isn’t the real Autopia – oh-no! For that you would have to go to Tomorrowland in Disneyland.
This is the four-level interchange, known as the “stack”. When it was completed in 1953, it was the first high-way high rise anywhere in the world and the prototype for countless interchanges that followed. The ultra-modern four-story freeway quickly became the new heart of town and replaced Hollywood and Vine as the city’s most famous and photographed crossroads. Ironically, Disneyland’s “futuristic” Autopia was introduced to the world two years later in 1955.
Southern California’s freeway system began on the drawing boards in the 1930s. By 1940, the first two sections, the Pasadena Freeway, linking downtown with Pasadena, and the Cahuenga Pass, linking Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, were complete. After World War II, construction began on the San Bernardino and Santa Ana Freeways. The “stack” was the centerpiece and crowning touch of the freeway system and conveniently linked them all. With the exception of the sheer volume of traffic it remains virtually unchanged today.
To me driving on the “stack,” or any other part of the freeway for that matter, is like going on the Autopia – only bigger! Just think for a minute how much more wonderful rush-hour would be if you could smash into the car in front of you over and over just for fun!
Posted Thursday, March 9th, 2006 under Slide of the Week.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hi Charles – Quick note….. Love all your pics and comments, it sure makes the week a bit more fun…
One this photo… i was thinking… what are the odds that a red and silver trailer would be caught traveling past the camera..?
I am out of town the weekend of your Disneyland Retro… Do you have a book “just” on old Disneyland photos… ?
Again, Thanks for bring fun and retro dreams into all our lives !
Take Care ! joe
Since I have worked downtown for 20 years now, the amount of times that I have driven in every direction on that spagetti bowl is astounding. The design was a case of life imatating art or vice versa for sure. Charles ? I think in one of your shows you had mentioned, that they actually had to slow down the Autopia cars when Disneyland opened? Apparently those little kids were getting some serious whiplash. How fun ! ! Many homeless have called that place home. The stack that is….not Disneyland.
Hi Charles: I drive over the top of that four level stack every day
and I have decided that the 101 North from the “Stack” needs to
be six lanes wide all the way to the 170/101 split. There are actually six lanes (three over the top and three coming in from the
right side that are transition lanes and on ramps). 99% of the time
the traffic going North stops while the merging takes place. But, in
1953 all ads related to driving showed people seemingly stress free and smiling all the time AND the “4 Level” moved traffic very
well back then. No one looked far enough into the future when de-
signing the freeway system to even imagine the growth in population AND vehicles. We needed the “Imagineers” back then
that Disney & company has now. See you at the Egyptian.
stress free and
Mr. Charles!
Well, this slide provides an excellent opportunity for all of us to get in touch with the tiny, polite driver that lives inside of all of us. As usual, Emily Post provides us the road map to all things courteous when behind the wheel. The following comes from _Emily Post’s Motor Manners … the bluebooklet of traffic etiquette_ (1949). The advice comes in the form of “letters” to Lady Post, but we all know that she faked up these letters in a succesful attempt to dazzle us all with her thoughts on, what she calls, “automobile autocrats.”:
Q. What driver courtesies add to passenger comforts?
A. A well-mannered driver will never frighten the passengers by careless or reckless maneuvering. Inattention to the road ahead; releasing the grip on the steering wheel to gesture or to light a cigarette, meanwhile allowing the car to wander; and, breaking traffic rules are all signs of careless driving which disturbs passengers. The obliging driver “host” will arrange for proper heating or ventilation for the comfort of his “guests.” The accomplished driver automatically makes smooth starts and stops, not jerky ones.
Q. What amenities should passengers show the driver?
A. Considerate passenger do nothing to distract the driver. Ceaseless chattering, arguing, crowding too many in the front seat, loud playing of the radio, are all examples of annoyances. The driver must be allowed to devote his entire effort to the attention to the road. No other demands should be made of him. In fact, passengers can be politely helpful by assisting the driver in reading road maps and looking for road signs.
There! Don’t we all feel better now? Hands on the wheel, darlings. No arguing about which Jack Jones’ song is the best, sweeties. Smooth stops. Good ventilation. No crowding in the front seat. Ah! You’ve just created heaven on wheels!
xoxo!
Miss Sharon
I remember being accosted by 2 disneyland personnel in jumpsuits for banging into my friends car. “These cars are expensive and we can’t have you banging the h*** out if them” was their comment. We were shocked and dismayed.
Hello,
That’s an amazing shot of the highway. And yes, what are the odds that a red and silver trailer got in the picture. I agree with Joe LoPrestie. I think it would be neat to see a book of pictures of old Disneyland. I showed a copy of “Southern California In the ‘50″ to my father, who grew up around California during that time. He remembered most of the things in the book and told stories about the things he saw at Disneyland. You rock, Charles.
Tim Severs
Columbus, OH
I guess Steve said it best- You do rock, Charles Phoenix (or Phenix, as we spell it here in the Fl Panhandle.)
I grew up literally on the ‘Expressways’ in Atlanta, sleeping in the backseat of the Bug while my 14 yr old cousin drove her mother to work in the morning, partying with friends driving round and round 285 most of a night the summer before college. My question is, when are YOU going on a road trip, Charles Phoenix? Eyedrum in ATL (Hill St Exit off of 75/85N) would be a great venue for your slide show!
Early postcards and promotional photos of the “stack” actually show people relaxing and having a picnic on the lawn just feet from the cars speeding by. I’d like to try that now!
The CHP doesn’t appreciate it when your car breaks down in the fastlane of the Northbound 101 on the 4-level at 7PM on a Saturday.
what is that red thing? Is it a real trailer being pulled by the yellow truck? or was some entity promoting mass transit over “the stack”? doesn’t like the occupants are real….
Charlie, when are you returning to Dallas for another show????
Hello, Charles…
I was born on Hope Street in downtown L.A. in 1951, so perhaps I could be a poster boy for this era. I very much appreciate your appreciation for downtown Los Angeles then and now. — from a native Angeleno
i still love those 5-25mph off ramps of the Pasadena freeway? Crazy!!!
What memories! The summer of 1959 when I was in drivers ed, I drove through that very spot on my FIRST time driving on any freeway. Scared me spitless.
Can you imagine accompaning a novice freeway driver through that interchange today? At anytime night or day? Surely Mr. Swanson, my instructor, had nerves of steel.
Anyway from the stack I had to get onto the Pasadena freeway. I thought that it was a glamorous and oh-so So-Cal kind of road. I couldn’t believe that just a couple of years before that I was a young girl living in the Oklahoma panhandle and my dad would allow me to drive the family pickup truck (1950 Chevy of the standard green color) across the pasture in granny gear while he tossed hay for the cows out of the truck bed. (Don’t ever slam on the brakes of a truck when a man is standing in the back of your truck with a pitch fork…it is much better to just hit the bull!!!!)
And now here I was feeling oh-so Hollywood on the Pasadena freeway in a brand spankin’ new 1959 Ford sedan. Nothing could have been finer unless of course, it had been a convertible and all of those kids I knew back in the panhandle could have been standing by the side of the road as I swooshed by, waving my best Rose Bowl beauty queen wave.
Thanks for the menory, Charles.
The Four Level in the Media:
It clicked in my mind a while back that the Four Level appeared in an episode of the Flintstones, some story where they were stuck in traffic for hours, just driving around in circles on these elevated ramps. Somehow it set in my mind that this was supposed to be the Four Level specifically, not just some generic freeway exchange.
Also, check out the film noir “Without Warning” from 1952. It has lots o’ footage of the Four Level just as it was built, and not yet open to traffic. Amazing vistas there. Also there’s some footage of the film’s serial killer prowling down Main Street. He also lives in a ramshackle house in Elysian Park, pre-Dodger statdium, directly overlooking the Pasadena Freeway. Some great location shooting in this movie. Too bad it’s all black and white, but this DVD (released 2006) is worth rental or purchase if you can find it.
Hi Charles
My name is Warren Chow and I am from Vancouver,B.C., Canada. I have been interested in the L.A.’s freeway since I was a little boy
back in the 1960’s. Last year after I attended a convention in San Diego, I drove to L.A. to spend three days driving and taking pictures of the freeways. My kids have seen the pictures I have taken, and I try to show them pictures of the past to compare all the changes from then to now. Do you have more pictures of the ‘Stack’, Harbour Freeway, US101, I5, I10 form the past fifty years? Keep up the great work and I plan to come down to go on one of your tours soon.
Regards Warren Chow
Vancouver,B.C.,Canada