Hollywood Freeway

Southbound approaching Hollywood Boulevard

First segment built of the Hollywood Freeway through the Cahuenga Pass; Pacific Electric Railway trolleys ran down the center median of this freeway until 1952

Hollywood freeway through the Cahuenga Pass in 1972

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

The freeway runs from the Four Level Interchange in downtown Los Angeles to the Golden State Freeway in the Sun Valley district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. From the Four Level Interchange to its intersection with the Ventura Freeway in the southeastern San Fernando Valley (also known as the Hollywood Split), the freeway is signed as part of U.S. Route 101. Afterwards, it is signed as State Route 170 until its northern terminus at Interstate 5.

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.

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.[2] 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.[2]

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.[2]

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 former home in Whitley Heights. The freeway was also designed to curve around KTTV Studios and Hollywood Presbyterian Church.[2] 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.[2]

In 1967, the Hollywood Freeway was the first freeway in California that had ramp meters.[2]

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.[6]

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 second location of Los Angeles High School was in the path of the freeway. The school moved to its third and current location in 1917. The school buildings were converted into a school for boys with truancy problems until 1948, when it was demolished to make way for the freeway.[7]

SR 170 was originally supposed to run from the I-5 interchange to I-405 near the Los Angeles International Airport as the Laurel Canyon Freeway under the Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Crescent Heights Boulevard and La Cienega Boulevard alignments of today. In fact, much of La Cienega Blvd. between Manchester Avenue and Venice Blvd. was constructed to freeway standards, with several grade-separated interchanges, although it is now an expressway maintained by Los Angeles County.

California's legislature has relinquished state control of the segment of SR 170 along Highland Avenue, and thus that portion is now maintained by the City of Los Angeles.[8]

Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. R reflects a realignment in the route since then, M indicates a second realignment, L refers to an overlap due to a correction or change, and T indicates postmiles classified as temporary (for a full list of prefixes, see California postmile § Official postmile definitions).[9] Segments that remain unconstructed or have been relinquished to local control may be omitted. The entire route is in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County.

Postmile [9][10]	Exit [11][12]	Destinations	Notes
1.57[lower-alpha 1]	—	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[lower-alpha 1]	3B[lower-alpha 2]	SR 110 (Arroyo Seco Parkway) to I-110 south (Harbor Freeway) – Pasadena, San Pedro	Signed as exit 3 northbound; south end of Hollywood Fwy; SR 110 exit 24A
See US 101 Exits 4A–12C
11.65[lower-alpha 1]	13B[lower-alpha 2]	SR 134 east (Ventura Freeway) – Pasadena	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; signed as exit 5B on SR 170; SR 134 west exit 1A; south end of Hollywood Split
11.80[lower-alpha 1] R14.50	—	South end of SR 170 North end of US 101 overlap	Hollywood Freeway south follows SR 170 exit 5A to US 101 south; SR 134 west exit 1B
	—	US 101 north (Ventura Freeway) – Ventura	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; SR 170 north follows US 101 north exit 13; north end of Hollywood Split
R14.78	6A	Riverside Drive to US 101 north	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	♦	I-5 north	HOV access only; northbound exit and southbound entrance
	11B	I-5 north (Golden State Freeway) – Sacramento	No access to I-5 south; north end of SR 170/Hollywood Fwy; I-5 south exit 153B
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       HOV only       Incomplete access       Route transition

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hollywood Freeway.

• Caltrans: Hollywood Freeway highway conditions
• Caltrans Traffic Conditions Map
• California Highway Patrol Traffic Incidents
• California @ AARoads - State Route 170
• California Highways: SR 170
• La Cienega Freeway
• Builders Of The Broad Highway Film showing Cahuenga Parkway c1940 construction (~4:22 onwards)
• LAistory: Pilgrimage Bridge Cahuenga Parkway completion details
• Image of the by-pass built temporarily to ease the traffic during construction of the Hollywood Freeway, California, 1949. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.