Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles explores how social,
economic, political, and cultural demands created the web of
freeways whose very form-futuristic, majestic, and
progressive-perfectly exemplifies the City of Angels. From the
Arroyo Seco Parkway, which began construction during the Great
Depression, to the Century Freeway, completed in 1993, author Paul
Haddad provides an entertaining and thought-provoking history of
the 527 miles of roadways that comprise the Los Angeles freeway
system. Each of Los Angeles's twelve freeways receives its own
chapter, and these are supplemented by "Off-Ramps"-sidebars that
dish out pithy factoids about Botts' Dots, SigAlerts, and all
matter of freeway lexicon, such as why Southern Californians are
the only people in the country who place the word "the" in front of
their interstates, as in "the 5," or "the 101." Freewaytopia also
explores those routes that never saw the light of day. Imagine
superhighways burrowing through Laurel Canyon, tunneling under the
Hollywood Sign, or spanning the waters of Santa Monica Bay. With a
few more legislative strokes of the pen, you wouldn't have to
imagine them-they'd already exist. Haddad notably gives voice to
those individuals whose lives were inextricably connected-for
better or worse-to the city's freeways: The hundreds of thousands
of mostly minority and low-income residents who protested against
their displacement as a result of eminent domain. Women engineers
who excelled in a man's field. Elected officials who helped further
freeways . . . or stop them dead in their tracks. He pays tribute
to the corps of civic and state highway employees whose collective
vision, expertise, and dedication created not just the most famous
freeway network in the world, but feats of engineering that, at
their best, achieve architectural poetry. And let's not forget the
beauty queens-no freeway in Los Angeles ever opened without their
royal presence. Freewaytopia is part colorful lore, part civic and
historical critique, and part homage to the most famous freeways in
the world.
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