Mulholland Drive

Last updated
Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive.png
Map of Mulholland Drive (orange) and Mulholland Highway (brown) in Los Angeles County
Namesake William Mulholland
Maintained by Bureau of Street Services, City of L.A. DPW
Length21 mi (34 km) [1]
West endUS 101 (1961 cutout).svg US 101 (Ventura Fwy) in Woodland Hills
Major
junctions
East endUS 101 (1961 cutout).svg US 101 (Hollywood Fwy)/Cahuenga Blvd in the Hollywood Hills
View of Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles from Mulholland Drive near its eastern terminus LA from Mulholland Drive.jpg
View of Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles from Mulholland Drive near its eastern terminus

Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties is named Mulholland Highway. The road is featured in a significant number of films, songs, and novels. David Lynch, who wrote and directed a film named after Mulholland Drive, has said that one can feel "the history of Hollywood" on it. Jack Nicholson has lived on Mulholland Drive for many years, and still did so as of 2009. [2]

Contents

History

The main portion of the road, from Cahuenga Pass in Hollywood westward past Sepulveda Pass, was originally called Mulholland Highway and was opened in 1924. [3] It was built by a consortium of developers investing in the Hollywood Hills. [4] DeWitt Reaburn, the construction engineer responsible for the project, said while it was being built, "The Mulholland Highway is destined to be one of the heaviest traveled and one of the best known scenic roads in the United States."

The street has experienced multiple closures throughout the years due to mudslides and storm damage, with the latest one being in 2024. [5]

San Fernando Valley from Mulholland Dr.JPG
View at dusk from Mulholland Drive across the southeast San Fernando Valley

Geography

San Fernando Valley at night from Mulholland Drive Mulholland Drive at night.jpg
San Fernando Valley at night from Mulholland Drive

The 21-mile (34 km) long [1] mostly two-lane, minor arterial road loosely follows the ridgeline of the eastern Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills, connecting two sections of U.S. Route 101, and crossing Sepulveda Boulevard, Beverly Glen Boulevard, Coldwater Canyon Avenue, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Nichols Canyon Road, and Outpost Drive.

The road offers views of the Los Angeles Basin, the San Fernando Valley, Downtown Los Angeles and the Hollywood Sign. [6]

Mulholland Drive has some of the most exclusive and expensive homes in the world, housing mainly Hollywood celebrities.

Route

A Mulholland Drive street sign in a residential neighborhood in Woodland Hills. 2004-04-02 - 31 - Mulholland Drive.jpg
A Mulholland Drive street sign in a residential neighborhood in Woodland Hills.

The eastern terminus of Mulholland Drive is at its intersection with Cahuenga Boulevard [1] at the Cahuenga Pass over the Santa Monica Mountains (at this point Cahuenga Boulevard runs adjacent to Highway 101/The Hollywood Freeway). The road continues to the west, offering vistas of the Hollywood Sign, Downtown Los Angeles, and then Burbank, Universal City, and the rest of the San Fernando Valley with the San Gabriel, Verdugo, and Santa Susana Mountains.

The road winds along the top of the mountains until a few miles west of the San Diego/Interstate 405 Freeway. Just west of the intersection with Encino Hills Drive, it becomes an unpaved road not open to motor vehicles. This part is known by many as "Dirt Mulholland". This portion connects with other unpaved roads and bike trails and allows access to a decommissioned Project Nike command post that is now a Cold War memorial park. (This portion of Mulholland Drive was open to through traffic as late as the 1990s before being permanently closed to motor vehicles so that they would no longer interfere with the natural beauty and wilderness of the area.)

The road opens again east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard (State Route 27) at Santa Maria Road but remains dirt until it reaches Saltillo Street. Shortly thereafter, the thoroughfare splits into Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Highway. Mulholland Drive terminates at U.S. Highway 101 (the Ventura Freeway), where it becomes Valley Circle Boulevard. Mulholland Highway continues to the southwest until it terminates at State Route 1 (PCH) in Leo Carrillo State Park [1] at the Pacific Ocean coast and the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Fernando Valley</span> Valley in California, US

The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the city of Los Angeles, as well as several unincorporated areas; and the incorporated cities of Burbank, Calabasas, Glendale, Hidden Hills, and San Fernando. The valley is well known for its film studios such as Warner Bros. Studios and Walt Disney Studios. In addition, it is home to the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Monica Mountains</span> Mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in California, United States

The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area encompasses this mountain range. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interstate 405 (California)</span> Interstate Highway in California

Interstate 405 is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. The entire route is known as the northern segment of the San Diego Freeway. I-405 is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running along the southern and western parts of the Greater Los Angeles urban area from Irvine in the south to Sylmar in the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hollywood Freeway</span> Freeway in California

The Hollywood Freeway is one of the principal freeways of Los Angeles, California and one of the busiest in the United States. It is the principal route through the Cahuenga Pass, the primary shortcut between the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley. It is considered one of the most important freeways in the history of Los Angeles and instrumental in the development of the San Fernando Valley. It is the second oldest freeway in Los Angeles. From its southern end at the Four Level Interchange to its intersection with the Ventura Freeway in the southeastern San Fernando Valley, it is signed as part of U.S. Route 101. It is then signed as State Route 170 north to its terminus at the Golden State Freeway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventura Freeway</span> Freeway in Southern California

The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California, United States, that runs from the Santa Barbara/Ventura county line to Pasadena in Los Angeles County. It is the principal east–west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. From the Santa Barbara County line to its intersection with the Hollywood Freeway in the southeastern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, it is signed as U.S. Route 101 (US 101), which was built in the late 1950s and opened on April 5, 1960. The segments from the Santa Barbara County line to Sea Cliff, and from Solimar Beach to Oxnard, are also concurrent with State Route 1 (SR 1), although no signs mention SR 1 there. East of the Hollywood Freeway intersection, the Ventura Freeway is signed as State Route 134 (SR 134), which was built by 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Route 2</span> State highway in California, United States

State Route 2 (SR 2) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It connects the Los Angeles Basin with the San Gabriel Mountains and the Victor Valley in the Mojave Desert. The highway's southwestern end is at the intersection of Centinela Avenue at the Santa Monica-Los Angeles border and its northeastern end is at SR 138 east of Wrightwood. The SR 2 is divided into four segments, and it briefly runs concurrently with U.S. Route 101 (US 101) and Interstate 210 (I-210). The southwestern section of SR 2 runs along a segment of the east–west Santa Monica Boulevard, an old routing of US 66, to US 101 in East Hollywood; the second section runs along segments of both the north–south Alvarado Street and Glendale Boulevard in Echo Park; the third section to I-210 in Glendale is known as the north–south Glendale Freeway; and the northeastern portion from I-210 in La Cañada Flintridge to SR 138 is designated as the Angeles Crest Highway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Route 23</span> Highway in California

State Route 23 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that connects the Pacific coast and the Santa Monica Mountains to the Conejo and Santa Clara River valleys. It runs from Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu in Los Angeles County to Ventura Street in Fillmore in Ventura County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern California freeways</span> Freeway system

The Southern California freeways are a vast network of interconnected freeways in the megaregion of Southern California, serving a population of 23 million people. The Master Plan of Metropolitan Los Angeles Freeways was adopted by the Regional Planning Commission in 1947 and construction began in the early 1950s. The plan hit opposition and funding limitations in the 1970s, and by 2004, only some 61% of the original planned network had been completed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sepulveda Pass</span> Mountain pass in Los Angeles County, California, United States

Sepulveda Pass is a low mountain pass through the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles. It is named after the Sepúlveda family of California, a prominent Californio family that owned the land where the pass lies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mulholland Highway</span> Road in Los Angeles, United States

Mulholland Highway is a scenic road in Los Angeles County, California, that runs approximately 50 miles through the western Santa Monica Mountains from near US Route 101 in Calabasas to Highway 1 near Malibu at Leo Carrillo State Park and the Pacific Ocean coast – at the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sepulveda Boulevard</span> Street in Los Angeles, California

Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Boulevard between Manhattan Beach and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) are designated as part of State Route 1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Los Angeles County Council</span>

The Western Los Angeles County Council (WLACC) (#051) is one of five Boy Scouts of America councils in Los Angeles County, California. Headquartered in Van Nuys, the council services over 30,000 youth spanning six districts including the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, Antelope Valley, Malibu, and much of West Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Route 101 in California</span> U.S. Highway in California

U.S. Route 101 (US 101) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway, stretching from Los Angeles, California, to Tumwater, Washington. The California portion of US 101 is one of the last remaining and longest U.S. Routes still active in the state, and the longest highway of any kind in California. US 101 was also one of the original national routes established in 1926. Significant portions of US 101 between the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area follow El Camino Real, the commemorative route connecting the former Alta California's 21 missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beverly Glen Boulevard</span> Road in Los Angeles, California

Beverly Glen Boulevard is one of five major routes that connect the Westside of Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley (the other four are the San Diego Freeway, Sepulveda Boulevard, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, and Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurel Canyon Boulevard</span>

Laurel Canyon Boulevard is a major street in the city of Los Angeles. It starts off at Polk Street in Sylmar in the northern San Fernando Valley near the junction of the San Diego and the Golden State (I-5)) freeways. Laurel Canyon Boulevard bypasses the city of San Fernando to the west, running parallel to I-5 in the vicinity of Pacoima and Arleta. The portion through Sun Valley passes through rock quarries and a great deal of open space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beverly Drive</span> Roadway in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Beverly Drive is a major north–south roadway in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park</span>

Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park is a 1,500-acre (6.1 km2) park in the Santa Monica Mountains, with its trailhead at the southern terminus of Reseda Boulevard in Tarzana, Los Angeles, California. The park was named for former Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, who for more than 30 years led the effort to preserve the Santa Monica Mountains. Owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the park is within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coldwater Canyon Avenue</span> Street in Los Angeles County, California, US

Coldwater Canyon Avenue is a street, primarily within the City of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County, California. It runs 10.3 miles (16.6 km) from North Beverly Drive at Coldwater Canyon Park in Beverly Hills, north up Coldwater Canyon, including a short stretch shared with Mulholland Drive, ending at a crossroad intersection with Roscoe Boulevard in Sun Valley, where the Coldwater Canyon Avenue changes into Sheldon Street.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 E. Rodolphe (16 December 2003). Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory and Urban Design. Psychology Press. p. 120. ISBN   978-0-415-26189-0 . Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  2. Janelle McCulloch (1 April 2009). One for the Road. Pier 9. p. 68. ISBN   978-1-74196-235-2 . Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  3. "Mulholland Scenic Parkway and Corridor". LA Mountains. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  4. Matthew W. Roth (July 1999). "Mulholland Highway and the Engineering Culture of Los Angeles in the 1920s". Technology and Culture. 40: 545–575. JSTOR   25147359.
  5. "TRAFFIC CLOSURE ALERT: Mulholland Drive Remains Closed to Traffic between Laurel Canyon Blvd and Coldwater Canyon Drive". LADOT. Retrieved 2024-03-25.
  6. Michael Eaton (1 February 1998). Chinatown. Macmillan. p. 27. ISBN   978-0-85170-532-3 . Retrieved 9 August 2012.

34°07′53″N118°29′24″W / 34.1313°N 118.49°W / 34.1313; -118.49