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.]]
runs from the junction of
Santa Monica Boulevard and
Centinela Avenue at
Santa Monica to
Route 138 east of Wrightwood, with
Concurrencies on Routes 101 and 210.
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 . 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 , 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.
There, the route turns north onto the ''
Angeles Crest Highway ''. This route winds generally east-northeast through the canyons of the
San Gabriel Mountains for over 80 miles (130 miles), before descending to the edge of the
Victor Valley approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of
Hesperia and ending at
Route 138 . Starting in La Cañada 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.
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.
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 , 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, flowing onto today's Glendale Freeway. In fact, it was the original routing of the "Santa Monica Freeway" (a name which subsequently went to the distantly parallel
Route 10 ). However, the department never obtained permission from
Beverly Hills to build it, for a variety of political reasons. At one time, the department considered building a
Cut-and-cover tunnel, but even this proved a non-starter, and the freeway plan 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.
California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 3, Section 302
- 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) 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 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
Source: 2004 Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances In California
