Colorado Boulevard
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Colorado Boulevard (or Colorado Street) is a major east-west street in Southern California, United States. It runs from Griffith Park in Los Angeles east through Glendale, the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Arcadia, ending in Monrovia. The full route was once various state highways, but is now locally maintained in favor of the parallel Ventura Freeway (State Route 134) and Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210).
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[edit] West end
Colorado Street begins at Interstate 5 (Golden State Freeway) as a short freeway spur, originally carrying State Route 134 until it was moved north onto the Ventura Freeway. After crossing the Los Angeles River, there are two interchanges - with Edenhurst Avenue and San Fernando Road - before it becomes a surface street. At the second interchange it enters Glendale.
At the east border of Glendale, Colorado Street becomes Colorado Boulevard as it crosses State Route 2 (Glendale Freeway) into Los Angeles (specifically, the neighborhood of Eagle Rock). Another short freeway spur splits west of the intersection with Figueroa Street, heading northeast to the Ventura Freeway. This spur also carried SR 134 after the Ventura Freeway was built to the east but before it was built west of the split with the spur. After crossing Figueroa Street, Colorado Boulevard splits from Linda Vista Avenue and then passes over the Arroyo Seco on the Colorado Street Bridge into Pasadena.
[edit] Through Pasadena
In Pasadena, Colorado Boulevard crosses the short State Route 710 spur and forms the north end of State Route 110 (Arroyo Parkway). Colorado Street, renamed "Boulevard" in 1958, runs through Old Town Pasadena from Arroyo Parkway to Orange Grove Boulevard. It is the north-south zero axis of the street grid in Pasadena (the east-west axis is Fair Oaks Avenue). The Tournament of Roses parade route travels north on Orange Grove Avenue then east along Colorado Boulevard as far as Sierra Madre Boulevard, where it heads north to Victory Park. Most major Pasadena attractions are found along or within one block of Colorado Boulevard. Pasadena City College is located at 1570 E. Colorado Boulevard. The street was mentioned in Jan and Dean's 1964 hit song The Little Old Lady from Pasadena. The road leaves the city into an unincorporated piece of Los Angeles County, where it intersects State Route 19 (Rosemead Boulevard).
[edit] East end
The name changes back to Colorado Street as it crosses Michillinda Avenue into Arcadia. It turns southeast and splits into Colorado Boulevard, which turns back east, and the short Colorado Place, which continues southeast to merge with Huntington Drive. Colorado Boulevard heads east as a less major road, passing under Interstate 210 (Foothill Freeway) with no access before ending at Shamrock Avenue in Monrovia. (Shamrock Avenue was once part of Foothill Boulevard.)
[edit] History
The most original portion of Colorado Boulevard ran from Orange Grove Boulevard to Broadway, now Arroyo Parkway. This portion of the street always contained many shops, banks, hotels, and major commercial industries. By the late 19th century, this part of the Colorado had become so popular, it was becoming a traffic bottleneck, and as early as May 1900 there were public outcries to City Council to widen the road. It wasn't until 1929 that the City undertook the major and unprecedented task of cutting back the buildings along Colorado 14 feet on each side. This undertaking created a monumental amount of legal red tape as well as many engineering dilemmas which were handled with amazing results. At the same much of the Victorian facings on the buildings were replaced with Spanish and Art Deco designs.
Colorado Street and Colorado Boulevard carried pre-1964 Legislative Route 161 from its west end to the merge with Huntington Drive (via Colorado Place). This was signed as State Route 134 west of Figueroa Street, U.S. Route 66 Alternate (US 66 before the end of 1940) from Figueroa Street to Arroyo Parkway, and U.S. Route 66 from Arroyo Parkway to Huntington Drive.
In the 1964 renumbering, LR 161 remained State Route 134 west of Pasadena, though this was being moved to the new alignment (now the Ventura Freeway). Through and east of Ventura, LR 161 became State Route 248, which continued east on Huntington Drive to the interchange with Interstate 210 (Foothill Freeway) in Monrovia. (The west end of SR 248 was at the interchange with SR 134 just east of the Colorado Street Bridge over the Arroyo Seco.)[1]
The length of SR 248 in Pasadena was deleted form the state highway system in 1986. The rest was removed in 1992.[1] Along with the moving of SR 134 to the Ventura Freeway, this resulted in Colorado Street and Colorado Boulevard becoming a local road.
Many buses serve Colorado Boulevard. Metro Local 180 and 181 and Metro Rapid 780 serve most of Colorado Boulevard. Also, Metro Local 177, 256, 686, and Foothill Transit 187 serve parts of Colorado Boulevard, beginning in Old Pasadena.
