Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: “Autopia” Downtown Los Angeles, 1957
“Autopia” Downtown Los Angeles, 1957
This month I celebrate the Magic Kingdom with two different events! THE “DISNEYLAND” TOUR OF DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES, a school bus and walking tour where I show you how Disneyland and the heart and soul of the city are so easily confused! Sundays March 19 and April 2, 2006 – and…THE RETRO DISNEYLAND SLIDE SHOW, Saturday March 25, & Sunday March 26, at the Egyptian in Hollywood – where we’ll go back to the 50s & 60s and visit the granddaddy of all theme parks- IN COLOR!
Streetlamps with dinosaur necks; speeding cars slowing on sharp curves and macaroni-and-cheese colored traffic signs that match the truck pulling a long, long trailer fashionably two-toned in battleship grey and lipstick red. This isn’t the real Autopia – oh-no! For that you would have to go to Tomorrowland in Disneyland.
This is the four-level interchange, known as the “stack”. When it was completed in 1953, it was the first high-way high rise anywhere in the world and the prototype for countless interchanges that followed. The ultra-modern four-story freeway quickly became the new heart of town and replaced Hollywood and Vine as the city’s most famous and photographed crossroads. Ironically, Disneyland’s “futuristic” Autopia was introduced to the world two years later in 1955.
Southern California’s freeway system began on the drawing boards in the 1930s. By 1940, the first two sections, the Pasadena Freeway, linking downtown with Pasadena, and the Cahuenga Pass, linking Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, were complete. After World War II, construction began on the San Bernardino and Santa Ana Freeways. The “stack” was the centerpiece and crowning touch of the freeway system and conveniently linked them all. With the exception of the sheer volume of traffic it remains virtually unchanged today.
To me driving on the “stack,” or any other part of the freeway for that matter, is like going on the Autopia – only bigger! Just think for a minute how much more wonderful rush-hour would be if you could smash into the car in front of you over and over just for fun!
Charles Phoenix
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Retro Disneyland Slide Show
A live comedy performance created with amazing vintage slides taken in the 50s and 60s – IN COLOR! Saturday March 25, 8pm and Sunday March 26, 1pm. More Info & Tickets
… and …
“Disneyland†Tour of Downtown Los Angeles
Sundays March 19 and April 2, 2006
The similarities between Downtown Los Angeles and Disneyland are staggering! I will be your tour guide as we explore “Main Street USAâ€, “Adventurelandâ€, “Fantasylandâ€, “Frontierland†and “Tomorrowland†in the heart and soul of the city by foot and vintage school bus. Info & Tickets
Glad to see that someone else realizes the central importance of the Four-Level Interchange to this city. It’s so elegant in the way it’s depressed into the hillside, too–few other highway interchanges have this sense of sheer poetry to them. A symphony in concrete, I tell you.
The four-level is the most overrated freeway interchange in the city. Gimme the 405/10 (for aesthetics) or East L.A. (sheer complexity) interchange any day.
The East LA Interchange is impressive, to be sure. The way that the main alignments are essentially two overlapping Y-shapes is a brilliant piece of design. The 10/405 interchange is good-looking from the air.
Few driving experiences, though, are the equal of going through the Four-Level at night with light traffic, the towers of downtown blazing brilliantly overhead as you swoop through the concrete treetrunks like Tarzan on a liana. Not even the 105-east-to-110-north carpool connector, which takes you at least seven stories up and provides an incredible view of the entire Los Angeles Basin, can compare.
It’d sure be nice if the Four-Level’s capacity were a little higher, though. Sucker backs up.
[...] Last weeks slide: “Autopia” of Downtown Los Angeles, the freeway interchange called the “stack,” and this week’s, Autopia in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. The similarities between the two are staggering! [...]