Valley Boulevard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



State Route 212
California State Highway Routes
< SR 211 SR 213 >
Unconstructed - Deleted - Freeway - Scenic

Valley Boulevard is a street in Southern California, United States, running east from Los Angeles to Pomona, where it becomes Holt Boulevard, and a continuation from Fontana to Colton. It generally parallels Interstate 10 and State Route 60, and is the original alignment of U.S. Route 60. The present north end of Interstate 710 is at Valley Boulevard in Los Angeles, just west of Alhambra.

The road begins northeast of downtown Los Angeles at the intersection of North Main Street and North Mission Road. It ends at the interchange with State Route 71 in Pomona, continuing east through Pomona as Holt Avenue and entering Montclair as Holt Boulevard.

After Holt Boulevard passes through Ontario, it merges with Interstate 10; a few miles eastward from there, another piece of Valley Boulevard splits from I-10 in Fontana, running through Rialto to I-10 in eastern Colton. When the old aligment next splits, in San Bernardino, it is known as Redlands Boulevard.

Several old alignments are present:

  • In downtown El Monte, the old road is now Valley Mall; a new alignment has been built a block to the north.
  • A road named Old Valley Boulevard exists in La Puente, where the new alignment crosses over a railroad on a bridge. The old road originally crossed near Unruh Avenue, and later moved to Hacienda Boulevard.[1][2]
  • The road originally crossed the railroads in western Pomona via Pomona Boulevard, present State Route 71 and 2nd Street into downtown Pomona.[1]

The road was once known as Main Street between El Monte and La Puente and Pomona Boulevard between La Puente and Pomona. Main Street became Valley Boulevard between 1933 and 1942, and Pomona Boulevard was renamed (except for the old section in Pomona) by 1959.[1][2][3]

When U.S. Route 60 was first extended to Los Angeles ca. 1932, it ran along Valley Boulevard. The new alignment (Ramona Boulevard and Garvey Avenue, now partly the San Bernardino Freeway) was built ca. 1934, taking US 60 off Valley Boulevard.[1] Pre-1964 Legislative Route 77 was defined in 1931 to run from downtown Los Angeles to Pomona along Valley Boulevard, and then to continue east to Riverside and south to San Diego.[4] The part from the east city limit of Los Angeles (just east of the north end of State Route 7, now Interstate 710) to Interstate 10 in El Monte was assigned the State Route 212 number in the 1964 renumbering, and in 1965 it was removed from the state highway system.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d 1933 Rand McNally Los Angeles and vicinity map
  2. ^ a b 1942 Gousha Los Angeles and vicinity map
  3. ^ 1959 Rand McNally Los Angeles and vicinity map
  4. ^ California Highways: Chronology of California Highways 1915-1932
  5. ^ California Highways: Former State Route 212