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N0KFQ > TODAY 22.09.15 16:42l 52 Lines 2287 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 67904_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Sep 22
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 150922/1432Z 67904@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.64
1953
The famous "four-level" opens in Los Angeles
On September 22, 1953, the first four-level (or "stack")
interchange in the world opens in Los Angeles, California, at the
intersection of the Harbor, Hollywood, Pasadena, and Santa Ana
freeways. It was, as The Saturday Evening Post wrote, "a mad
motorist's dream": 32 lanes of traffic weaving in eight
directions at once. Today, although the four-level is justly
celebrated as a civil engineering landmark, the interchange is
complicated, frequently congested, and sometimes downright
terrifying. (As its detractors are fond of pointing out, it's
probably no coincidence that this highway octopus straddles not
only a fetid sulfur spring but also the former site of the town
gallows.)
Before the L.A. four-level was built, American highway
interchanges typically took the form of a cloverleaf, with four
circular ramps designed to let motorists merge from one road to
another without braking. But cloverleafs were dangerous, because
people merging onto the highway and people merging off of the
highway had to jockey for space in the same lane. Four-level
interchanges, by contrast, eliminate this looping cross-traffic
by stacking long arcs and straightaways on top of one another. As
a result, each of their merges only goes in one direction-which
means, at least in theory, that they are safer and more
efficient.
When the iconic Hollywood-Harbor-Pasadena-Santa Ana four-level
was born, it was the most expensive half-mile of highway in the
world, costing $5.5 million to build. (Today, highway engineers
estimate, $5.5 million would pay for just 250 feet of urban
freeway.) Roadbuilders disemboweled an entire neighborhood-4,000
people lost their homes-and excavated most of the hill it stood
on, dumping the rubble in the nearby Chavez Ravine, where Dodger
Stadium stands today.
Though its design has inspired dozens of freeway interchanges
across the United States, many Angelenos dread their encounters
with the four-level: It's as crowded (500,000 drivers use it
every day), stressful and treacherous as the cloverleafs of
yesteryear. Still, it's an indispensable part of the fabric and
the mythology of Los Angeles.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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