5/26/2005

Happy Birthday To The 10 Freeway.


If you are a relative of Waist High's and you spent some of your childhood in beautiful El Monte California, you will be pleased to know that the San Bernardino Freeway, the freeway that was being built in your backyard, is turning 50.

"Today, the I-10 slices through some of the most heavily populated cities and suburbs in Los Angeles. It stretches 243 miles and is a critical east-west connector to Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. It is a critical link on the U.S. Interregional Highway System, which reaches the Arizona border near Blythe."

During the early 1950s, as the highway inched it's way toward Monterey Park, El Monte and then Pomona, talks turned rocky with city officials who disagreed with the proposed routes through their cities. The State Division of Highways wanted to cut the I-10 through a housing section in Pomona and the downtown area in El Monte.


El Monte put up the biggest fight. For 12 years, the city involved itself in a series of studies and negotiations with the highways division involving a four-mile stretch between Rosemead Boulevard and the San Gabriel Freeway.

Photo courtesy: The Waist High Collection