California State Route 2

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State Route 2

Length:

90.98 mi^[1] (146.42 km)

Formed:

1934^[2]

West end:

I-10/SR 1 in Santa Monica

Major
junctions:

I-405 in Los Angeles

US 101 in Los Angeles

I-5 in Los Angeles

I-210 in La Cañada Flintridge

East end:

SR 138 near Wrightwood

California State Routes
< SR 1		SR 3 >
Unconstructed - Deleted - Freeway - Scenic

Map of State Route 2; the Santa Monica Boulevard segment is highlighted in red, Alvarado Street is highlighted in green, the Glendale Freeway is highlighted in blue, and the Angeles Crest Highway is highlighted in purple. Concurrencies with the Hollywood Freeway (U.S. Route 101) and the Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210) are highlighted in yellow.

State Route 2 in the U.S. State of California runs from the junction of Santa Monica Boulevard and Centinela Avenue at Santa Monica to Route 138 east of Wrightwood, running concurrent with Routes 101 and 210.

1 Route description
2 History
3 State law
4 Other names
5 Exit list
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
- 8.1 Points of interest

[edit] Route description

Starting in July, 1964, Route 2 began in Santa Monica at its junction with Routes 1 and 10. After heading a few blocks northwest on Lincoln Boulevard, the route turned northeast on Santa Monica Boulevard, just several blocks from the Pacific Ocean. The route continued on Santa Monica Boulevard to Centinela Avenue, the Los Angeles/Santa Monica city limit, where Route 2 currently begins. From Centinela Avenue, Route 2 heads northeast on Santa Monica Boulevard through the wealthy areas of West Los Angeles, Westwood, Century City, and Beverly Hills before entering the decidedly urban West Hollywood. At Holloway Drive in West Hollywood, Route 2 turns east continuing on Santa Monica Boulevard to the Hollywood Freeway in Hollywood.

Route 2 then jumps onto the Hollywood Freeway (US Highway 101) and heads southeast to the Alvarado Street exit. There, it heads northeast on Alvarado Street through the culturally vivid community of Echo Park. The route then turns north onto Glendale Boulevard, which is frequently congested, especially after games and events at Dodger Stadium. The route then branches northeast onto the Glendale Freeway, a peculiarly north-south route with an east-west demarcation. The Glendale Freeway runs near the communities of Glassell Park and Eagle Rock. After its interchange with Route 134, the route follows a mountain ridge through a valley as it flanks the east side of Glendale. The freeway ends at Foothill Boulevard in La Cañada Flintridge; Route 2 turns off onto eastbound Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210) for a short while until reaching the Angeles Crest Highway exit.

Angeles Crest Highway as it winds through the Angeles National Forest.

There, the route turns north onto the Angeles Crest Highway, cutting through an obscure portion of Pasadena. This route winds generally east-northeast through the canyons of the San Gabriel Mountains for over 80 miles (130 miles), before descending through Big Pines and Wrightwood to the edge of the Victor Valley approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Hesperia and ending at Route 138. Starting in La Cañada-Flintridge at an altitude of 1,300' (394m) the highway climbs to a high point of 7,903' (2,395m) at Dawson Saddle. The eastern portions of the Angeles Crest Highway are notoriously dangerous, with many switchbacks and blind curves, and are often closed during occasions of heavy winter snowfall. The highway is generally closed between Islip Saddle and Vincent Gap from mid-December to mid-May due to snow and rockfall.

[edit] History

Before 1964, U.S. Route 66 ran along Lincoln Boulevard from its junction with Alternate U. S. 101 (now California Route 1) and California Route 26 (now replaced by Interstate 10) to Santa Monica Boulevard and along Santa Monica Boulevard from Lincoln Boulevard to the Hollywood Freeway. US 66 turned southeast on the Hollywood Freeway with US 101. At that time, Route 2 began on Alvarado Street at the Hollywood Freeway. As is today, Route 2 traversed Alvarado Street and Glendale Boulevard to the Glendale Freeway. Route 2 continued on the Glendale Freeway to a temporary connection with Fletcher Drive at Avenue 38 in the Atwater district of Los Angeles. From the temporary connection, the route ran northeast on Fletcher Drive, and north on Verdugo Road to its south intersection with Cañada Boulevard in Glendale. From the south intersection, Route 2 headed north on Cañada Boulevard to its north intersection with Verdugo Road, north on Verdugo Road, and east on Verdugo Boulevard, before reaching Foothill Boulevard in La Cañada-Flintridge. Route 2 continued approximately one mile southeast on Foothill Boulevard with California Route 118 to Angeles Crest Highway. From Foothill Boulevard, Route 2 continued north on Angeles Crest Highway, where it continues to this day.

Glendale Freeway

Before the segment of the Glendale Freeway was built between Glendale Boulevard and just west of the Los Angeles River, Route 2 began at the Hollywood Freeway on Santa Monica Boulevard, continued east to Myra Avenue, then north on Myra Avenue, east on Fountain Avenue, northeast on Hyperion Avenue, southeast on Rowena Avenue, southeast on Glendale Boulevard, and northeast on Fletcher Drive to just west of the Los Angeles River. From west of the Los Angeles River, Route 2 continued on the Glendale Freeway to its temporary connection with Fletcher Drive at Avenue 38 and then followed the routing described in the previous paragraph to Route 138 northeast of Wrightwood.

In 1964, Route 2 was defined as a single route from Santa Monica to Wrightwood with no discontinuities. Upon its decommissioning in California, the segment of former U. S. 66 on Santa Monica Boulevard west of the Hollywood Freeway and Lincoln Boulevard were added to Route 2. Route 2 became discontinuous at Routes 101 and 210 in 1965 and 1990, respectively.

The first segment of freeway was built in the 1950s and ran from just west of the Los Angeles River to Avenue 38 in the Atwater district of Los Angeles. This portion was at one time named the Allesandro Freeway, named after a character from Helen Hunt Jackson's novel Ramona. The last segment of freeway, from Route 134 to Route 210, was built in 1970s. It is named the Frank G. Lanterman Freeway in honor of the former California state assemblyman from the La Cañada region.

Originally, it was to have been the Beverly Hills Freeway from Route 405 to Route 101 just east of Vermont Avenue, flowing onto the Glendale Freeway. In fact, the proposed freeway on Route 2 west of Route 101 was the original routing of the "Santa Monica Freeway" (a name which subsequently went to the distantly parallel Route 10). However, for a variety of political reasons, the department never reached agreement with Beverly Hills to build the segment through that city. At one time, the department considered building a cut-and-cover tunnel under Beverly Hills, but even this proved a non-starter, and the freeway plan west of Route 101 was quietly cancelled in 1975. Currently, the Glendale Freeway begins as a stub at Glendale Boulevard. A freeway-wide bridge was built over Glendale Boulevard in hopes that the freeway would be built further west. Today, the bridge serves as the westbound lanes of Route 2, connecting the southwestbound freeway lanes to southbound Glendale Boulevard. A more modest freeway/expressway extension to Route 101 has been discussed.

Today, Caltrans is relinquishing the street-running parts of Route 2 to local cities of which it runs through. In 1996, state law was changed to permit the relinquishment of Route 2 in Santa Monica and West Hollywood. When the relinquishment in Santa Monica went through in 1998, the portion from Route 1 to Centinela Avenue was deleted. The law was changed again in 2001 to allow Route 2 from Route 405 to Moreno Drive to be relinquished to the City of Los Angeles. In 2003 California Senate Bill 315 was chaptered, acknowledging the relinquishments within Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and from Route 405 to Moreno Drive in Los Angeles, and permitting the relinquishment of Route 2 in Beverly Hills. Whether Route 2 west of Route 101 will stay as a paper route after relinquishment is yet to be determined.

[edit] State law

Legal Definition of Route 2: California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 3, Section 302

Route 2 is part of the Freeway and Expressway System, as stated by section 253.2 of the California State Highway Code.

Route 2 is part of the Scenic Highway System, as stated by section 263.2 of the California State Highway Code.

[edit] Other names

Route 2 has the following names, as designated by various state laws:^[3]

Allessandro Freeway: From Glendale Boulevard in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles to Route 2's west junction with I-210.
Alvarado Street: From Route 2's east junction with U. S. 101 to Glendale Boulevard in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles.
Angeles Crest Highway: From Route 2's east junction with I-210 in La Cañada-Flintridge to Los Angeles County Highway N4 (Big Pines Highway to the northwest) in Big Pines.
Angeles Crest Scenic Byway: From Route 2's east junction with I-210 in La Cañada-Flintridge to the Los Angeles/San Bernardino County Line.
Big Pines Highway: Los Angeles County Highway N4 (Big Pines Highway to the northwest) in Big Pines to the Los Angeles/San Bernardino County Line.
Frank Lanterman Freeway: From Route 134 to Route 2's west junction with I-210.
Glendale Boulevard: From Alvarado Street to the Glendale Freeway in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles
Glendale Freeway: From Glendale Boulevard in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles to Route 2's west junction with Route 210.
Santa Monica Boulevard: Centinela Avenue, the Los Angeles/Santa Monica city limit, to Route 2's west junction with U. S. 101

[edit] Exit list

Postmile^[1]	Municipality	#^[4]	Destinations	Notes
Approaches on surface streets from Echo Park
LA 14.21	Los Angeles		Glendale Blvd South	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; SR-2 currently exits westbound to, and enters eastbound from, Glendale Blvd
LA 14.21		12	Glendale Blvd North	Separate westbound exit only
LA 15.15		13A	Interstate 5 - Golden State Freeway	Exit 13 northbound
LA 15.52		13B	Fletcher Drive	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
LA 16.02		14	San Fernando Road
LA R17.00		15A	Verdugo Road	Exit 15 eastbound; eastbound exit and entrance accessible via Eagle Rock Blvd
LA R17.29		15B	York Blvd	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance, the latter accessible via Wawona St
LA R18.52		16	Colorado Blvd	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
LA R18.81		17A	State Route 134 East - Pasadena	Combined as Exit 17B westbound
LA R18.81		17B	State Route 134 West - Ventura	Combined as Exit 17B westbound
LA R19.05	Glendale	17C	Holly Drive	Exit 17A westbound
LA R20.05		18	Mountain Street
LA R23.16		21A	Interstate 210 East - Pasadena	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; I-210 joins eastbound and leaves westbound
		21B	Interstate 210 West - Sacramento	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		21C	Foothill Blvd	Eastbound left exit and westbound entrance (at-grade intersection)
Concurrent with Interstate 210
LA 24.42	La Cañada Flintridge		Interstate 210 East - Pasadena	SR-210 joins westbound and leaves eastbound; SR-2 exits eastbound to, and enters westbound from, Angeles Crest Highway
LA 24.42	La Cañada Flintridge		Angeles Crest Highway
Continues on as Angeles Crest Highway