Flashback Friday: Building the 110 Freeway through Elysian Park

The photos below show the construction of what is now the southbound 110 freeway lanes through Elysian Park in the early 1940s – the lanes were opened in 1943. It took me a while to exactly picture the freeway here now, and with Dodger Stadium things look a lot different than they did back then. The 1930s era Figueroa Street tunnels are still there, then with no graffiti.

LAPL photo #00075980

Photo caption reads: “Rushing the work to relieve the bottleneck of the Figueroa tunnels for traffic on the Arroyo Seco freeway that runs between Los Angeles and Pasadena, crews are shown building the new parallel road through Elysian Park. In one section a whole mountain is being moved to fill in dirt for the new relief road for the heavy traffic.” Photo dated March 7, 1941.

LAPL photo #00075981

Photo caption reads: “Construction of the $2,437,000 Arroyo Seco freeway through Elysian Park, a section of which is shown above, today entered the national defense picture. Frank W. Clark, state director of public works, has asked federal authorities for priorities on steel and cement to complete the project on the grounds that it is of strategic value in the national defense program around this city.” Photo dated August 11, maybe 1941.

Notice the beautiful Solano Avenue Elementary School to the left of the freeway (and no Dodger Stadium yet!). The scaffolding could possible be for a Red Car?

FYI, the interchange that connects the 110 freeway and the 101 in downtown is the country’s first “stack interchange” in the world, opened in 1953.

2 Responses to “Flashback Friday: Building the 110 Freeway through Elysian Park”

1. Scott says:

   December 3, 2010 at 4:23 pm

   The arched scaffolding in the background of the second photo is the concrete formwork for the Park Row Drive Bridge. The scaffolding bottom center was the formwork for the new retaining wall that would support the southbound lanes of traffic. The closest street cars got to the spot was several blocks to the east (right) on Broadway.
2. Brian of Glassell says:

   December 5, 2010 at 10:04 pm

   Also notice that the tunnel was a “Two Way” tunnel with traffic running both directions.
   Very cool photos.

   The “no graffiti” comment is kinda tacky…..