Via Marisol started out as Hermon Ave. until 1978, meaning these signs are over 35 years old. No surprise. For all I know, they are so old that they hung above US 66 at one point (truncated off of the Parkway, then CA 11/Pasadena Freeway, in 1964), but are probably just a year or two younger than that. The down and hard right arrows give you an idea of the curvature and substandard (to modern standards) design of the freeway, while the one-line signs preserve the parkway character as much as possible. Hermon Ave. was renamed by the city councilman at the time for his daughter, without regard to the rest of the neighborhood. Now there is no mention of Hermon on any sign.


How about a "TO?" Amazingly, US 101 is listed first, even though it's never on this freeway. The Ave. 43 and Pasadena Ave. bridges (as well as the others not pictured here) have an extra arch to the left for the Arroyo Seco.


Past the curvy Ave. 26 overpass (which predates CA 110, originally just crossing Arroyo Seco) to the Elysian Park viaduct. The SB lanes were built (as US 66 WB) just a few years after Arroyo Seco Parkway opened. Until then, both sides were 2 lanes each way through the Figueroa St. Tunnels, now an historic feature of the NB side (see big link at bottom). You can see the exit portal behind the barrier in the last photo.


The arch carries Park Row Dr. I also captured an original-style lamppost, but do not know whether it is actually 70 years old.


But I thought we just passed I-5! Yes, we did. This is actually US 101 in both directions, but 101 soon ends at I-5 SB. Still, these old signs don't give you even half the information that modern standards require. The last two signs are the left and right sides of the same overpass, presented separately for maximum pop to the button copy. With all the grime, the reflectors don't even look round.


The left and right sides of the next overpass. The exit sign was clearly improvised at some other time, and quite possibly by a different agency given the number of differences. The border is the same style as later Caltrans, but the pale background is more like much earlier signs - it may have been recycled from somewhere else and pressed into emergency use. The I-5 shield is also a newer style than the previous assembly, with large buttons in the numeral instead of tiny ones. The narrow shield for the 101 is another unique feature of this sign. On the left side, the CA 110 shield is a patch over the original designation, CA 11.


Yet again, left and right sides of the same overpass. The signs on the right are over the Exit 24A ramp split. This is the first stack interchange ever constructed, and a California icon with the lowest ramps tunneling under the interchange.


Guess what? The last two photos are the left and right sides of the same gantry. Surprised? I'm grateful for the camera resolution. The I-110 designation is jumping the gun just a bit, as it's another 2 miles to the I-10 interchange. Oh, and there are still CA 110 shields south of here.


Exit 23 ramp signs, almost, and then the sign above the onramp from there, with another patched CA 11.


Guess what, this time? This is still CA 110, not I-110. I won't make you guess whether the last two photos are on the same gantry. They are.

Exit 22B ramp signs.


Whoops, one of the exit signs wasn't... duct taped? It works, but it's more distracting than something dark green.


Here's a different patch, for Adams Blvd. The slip ramp for Adams was closed, so traffic now needs to use Exit 21 for I-10 and keep going straight. Notice how no signs tell you this.


The first three photos follow the ramp toward I-10 WB. It seems like there are three different ages of sign on one ramp - the newest first and the oldest second. The last photo heads toward I-10 EB. CA 110 becomes I-110 at that overpass.

Continue south on I-110 SB
Over to the NB lanes
Continue west on old US 66 to Sunset Boulevard
Back east on old US 66 to Figueroa Street
Back to CA 110 main page

Onto I-5
Onto US 101
Onto I-10
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