The Ridge Route

The internet – you gotta love it.  Start doing one thing and two hours later you’re someplace completely different.

Quite a while back I saved a link for future posting:  It was called LA Photo Gallery, but now it’s called @LA.  It even got itself a www.at.la address.  It’s full of links to pictures of LA grouped in various categories.  The wandering starts.  Click.  Click.  Click.

Ended up on The Ridge Route, which gives the history of the first road through the San Gabriel and Tehachapi Mountains.  Built in 1915, the road essentially connects Bakersfield to LA.  It got popular quick, and was replaced by US 99 in 1933.

Naturally, there’s a website or two for it as well:  Historic US 99 Guide and Historical Tour of US 99.  I’ve seen pieces of US 99 (usually the part that goes straight into Pyramid Lake viewed from I-5) many times.  The first site says:

Between 1960 and 1967, I-5 replaced all of old US 99.  I-5 through the Tehachipis proved a major public works project – one of the most impressive in all of the Interstate Highway system.  As testament to this, more dirt was moved to grade for it than was used for the entire Aswan High Dam in Egypt and it is one of the few single man made objects that can be seen clearly from space.

No wonder a trip that took 2 days in 1920 only takes 2 hours now.  And no wonder a quick check of a link turned into a 2 hour side trip.