In 1949, La Cienega Blvd was extended through the Baldwin Hills. This roadway was eventually to become a part of the State Route 170 Laurel Canyon Freeway. Interchanges and grade separations were built with this in mind. Access to the roadway was also controlled, making it easier to upgrade the roadway to a full freeway in the future. It became the only section constructed not long after.
Today, the roadway remains as a freeway and expressway-grade roadway through those hills acting as a “cutoff” for travelers coming from the westside of Los Angeles to the airport area. The photo above shows the interchange between La Cienega Blvd (right-left) and Slauson Ave in 1967. The photo was taken as a part of a study for a freeway routing for State Route 90, another stub freeway nearby. That freeway gained the moniker of the “Slauson Cutoff” by Johnny Carson.
Los Angeles may be known as “The Land of Freeways” but many of those freeway dreams didn’t come to pass. This is an example of one of those.
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Wow I’m in my 50’s and I grew up in watts. We would only go as far west as LaCienega on special occasions. The rich ppl lived on that side of town lol. We did drive past there today. It runs north and south from Beverly Hills thru Inglewood & u can see the change in the neighborhoods. Really built up & unrecognizable from the 70’s-90’s when I moved out of LA in 95 it was pretty much unchanged. Almost didn’t know where I was today.
Thanks for this post.