BGuthrie Photos: CA -- Los Angeles -- Mulholland Drive

CA -- Los Angeles -- Mulholland Drive:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MUL_140721_047.JPG: LA96C During the Cold War this was a military reservation. LA96C was one of the 16 missile silos that protected Los Angeles from a feared attack by Soviet bombers. It was an active battery from 1956 - 1968 with radar searching the sky for enemy airplanes. New military technology made the NIKE missiles obsolete, and the site has been made into a park. Nature is reclaiming the military ruins. Restricted Entry
2. MUL_140721_054.JPG: STOP During the Cold War the sentry post was manned around the clock to prevent entry to anyone not on military business. From 1956-1968 you would not have been allowed to enter. Today LA96C has been partially restored to give you the feeling of the site as a heavily secured and harsh military outpost, even as it is reclaimed by nature. PROCEED WITH CAUTION
3. MUL_140721_065.JPG: ATTENTION LA96C was surrounded by wilderness. Deer, coyote, bobcats and mountain lions claimed all the territory outside the military fences. Soldiers lived inside this fenced cage while wild animals watched from the outside. Wildlife is not as abundant today because urbanization has destroyed its habitat. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is working to acquire enough land to create Bill Wild, a 20,000 acre urban wilderness park that will extend from here almost to the Pacific Ocean, providing protected habitat for wildlife. Preserving the canyons directly to the south -- Mission, Rustic, and Sullivan -- is critical to create Big Wild. These animals need the following number of acres to maintain a healthy population. Which could continue to be healthy within the 20,000 acre confines of Big Wild?
4. MUL_140721_100.JPG: NOTICE San Vicente was an ideal site for NIKE missile radar. On a peak 1,950 feet above sea level it provided vision in all directions. Soldiers in the LA96C Battery could look southeast to a youthful downtown Los Angeles with few of the tall buildings we see today. From here it is 15 miles to the center of downtown. It is 10 miles to Venice Beach. In 1962 NIKE officials claimed, "Whatever tomorrow brings... NIKE will be watching, always ready." But by the end of the 1960s both the US and Soviet Union had developed Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) which traveled so fast and high that NIKE missiles were useless for defense. KEEP ALERT
5. MUL_140721_114.JPG: HIGH SECURITY This was a high security area because these buildings housed the computers that recorded, plotted and coordinated every event to locate, intercept and destroy an enemy target. The work of these computers, which occupied all these buildings and trailers in 1961, can be done by a hand-sized computer today. Find in the photo: a Target-Ranging Radar, a LOPAR Radar, an Army truck, a helicopter pad, security fence with barbed wire, a water tank, and newly planted trees. Can you find remains of these on site today?
6. MUL_140721_124.JPG: Pacific Ocean
7. MUL_140721_138.JPG: In 2012 this bridge replaced the historic Mulholland Drive overcrossing that was demolished to accommodate the widening of the San Diego Freeway (I-405). Built in 1959, the original bridge was determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 for its exceptional engineering and construction. Designed by MA Shulman with the California Division of Highways, it was an impressive representation of early concrete box girder bridge construction, evidenced in its graceful lines and slim profile. The overcrossing was 579 feet long in three spans, and at the time of construction its 235 foot long central span was the longest of its type in the western United States. It opened to traffic on April 7, 1960, two years prior to the completion of the freeway. Like the earlier bridge, the new Mulholland Drive overcrossing features three spans of arched concrete box girders, but with a span of 608 feet and a width of 82 feet, the new bridge is both 29 feet longer and 15 feet wider.
8. MUL_140721_154.JPG: Mulholland Scenic Corridor: Mulholland road was built in the 1920s "to take Angelinos from the city to the ocean." From parkway vista points you can see panoramas of the city, mountains and beaches, or hike trails into pockets of wilderness hidden in the canyons. Mulholland Scene Corridor runs approximately 50 miles from Griffith Park to Leo Carrillo State Beach, and links city, county, state, and federal parks within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
9. MUL_140721_166.JPG: Mulholland Scenic Parkway: In the Beginning: In the early 1920s, William Mulholland, Chief Engineer for the City of Los Angeles, set about to build a scenic road along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. A 55 mile long road from Cahuenga Pass to Leo Carrillo State Beach was the result. Its mountainside construction required dynamite, steam shovels and high compressors. Camps for as many as 300 workers were established along the route. At night, the workers gazed at the city lights and encountered the resident wildlife. When completed, the LOS ANGELES TIMES heralded Mulholland Drive as "destined to take its place as one of the famous scenic highways of the world." The roadway offered stunning views of numerous mountain ranges and valleys, the ocean, and Catalina Island. It also provided an instant retreat from the city environment. Today: Although numerous housing tracks and cross-mountain roads have erased much of the wild terrain and unblemished views present in William Mulholland's day, spectacular views and open space remain along the roadway. A series of scenic overlooks and both public and private open space areas complement the roadway experience. Twenty-two miles of Mulholland Drive (from the Hollywood 101 Freeway to Topango Canyon Boulevard) fall within the Los Angeles City limits. A seven mile long stretch still offers the dirt surface experience from the city's early history. This dirt stretch courses through Topanga State Park and the Conservancy's Mulholland Gateway Park which art part of the world's largest municipal ecosystem. What exists to protect the remaining viewsheds, watersheds, natural qualities, and wildlife habitats along Mulholland Drive? After twenty years of citizen effort, in 1992, the Los Angeles City Council adopted the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Design and Review Board to shape the environment of the parkway's outstanding and unique scenic features and resources.
10. MUL_140721_171.JPG: Stone Canyon Reservoir: The reservoir and more than 225 acres of surrounding watershed land are owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The large protected area, which is not open to public access, provides a high quality wildlife habitat area. The open water offers an immense source of drinking water for land animals and locally uncommon habitat for water fowl and aquatic organisms, particularly crayfish and bluegill fish. Federal drinking water standards were recently tightened regarding the condition of open water reservoirs. Stone Canyon Reservoir is too large to cover. For it to remain in service, a new filtration plant and underground storage tanks have been proposed for the northern end of the upper reservoir. Lower Stone Canyon Reservoir was built in the 1920s when it was not uncommon to encounter a mountain lion in this portion of the Santa Monica Mountains. Previous to then, real estate speculators had subdivided much of the immediate watershed, including what is now underwater, into tiny mountain lots. In 1955, the lower reservoir and is dam were refurbished and the much smaller upper reservoir was added. Both reservoirs are filled with a gravity siphon via a pipeline across the floor of the San Fernando Valley to the Los Angeles Reservoir in Granada Hills. The one mile long lower reservoir covers more than 125 acres. Its deepest point exceeds 130 feet.
11. MUL_140721_182.JPG: Urban Wild
12. MUL_140721_190.JPG: Stone Canyon Overlook
13. MUL_140721_192.JPG: Mulholland Scenic Parkway Charles and Lotte Melhorn Scenic Overlook Wildlife Corridors -- Fragile Links for Connectivity
14. MUL_140721_208.JPG: Charles & Lotte Melhorn Overlook
15. MUL_140721_234.JPG: Mulholland Scenic Parkway Barbara A. Fine Overlook
16. MUL_140721_251.JPG: Barbara A. Fine Overlook at the Summit
17. MUL_140721_271.JPG: Mulholland Scenic Parkway Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook at Fryman Canyon
18. MUL_140721_280.JPG: In memory of Betty B. Dearing 1917-1977 who visualized and worked to create a nature walk from Los Angeles to the sea Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, Inc. Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
19. MUL_140721_310.JPG: Universal City Overlook
20. MUL_140721_313.JPG: Hollywood Bowl
21. MUL_140721_340.JPG: The Hollywood Bowl: The Hollywood Bowl is an outdoor concert amphitheater, seating 18,000 people on grounds totalling 110 acres. Hollywood's Theatre Arts Alliance purchased the land in 1919 to create a park and arts center. Permanent seating was installed on the graded hillside in 1926. Since then, the Bowl has grown from a community arts center to a world-famous performance site. The Hollywood Bowl is the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra shown performing here in 1994.
22. MUL_140721_346.JPG: You can barely see the ocean out there
23. MUL_140721_364.JPG: Fan's gathering for this evening's concert which happened to be M�tley Cr�e and Alice Cooper
24. MUL_140721_382.JPG: The City That Dreams Built. Los Angles began as a small pueblo, isolated by mountains and desert and the lack of a good harbor. The region also lacked coal, iron, timber, and water -- all necessary for industrial growth. Oranges, oil, movies, and tourism spurred economic development. By the early 20th century, railroads were built, a harbor was dredged, and water was piped in from the Sierra Nevada and the Colorado River. Los Angeles has grown to be among the largest and most dynamic urban centers in the world.
25. MUL_140721_392.JPG: Griffith Observatory
26. MUL_140721_398.JPG: The Sign and the City. Like many chapters in the history of Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign began as a real estate promotion. A gigantic billboard was commissioned in 1923 to promote the development called "Hollywoodland." Mules hauled telegraph poles, sheet metal, and 4,000 light bulbs up the side of Mount Lee to create the sign. Several years later, a landslide destroyed the last four letters. Time and weather ravaged the rest of the sign, until the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce started the "Save the Sign" campaign in 1978. Patrons paid $27,700 per letter to rebuild the sign, now an internationally known landmark.
Wikipedia Description: Mulholland Drive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mulholland Drive is a very well-known road in Los Angeles, California named after engineer William Mulholland. A portion of it is also called Mulholland Highway.

The mostly two-lane, minor arterial road loosely follows the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills, connecting two sections of the U.S. Route 101, and crossing Sepulveda Boulevard, Beverly Glen Boulevard, Coldwater Canyon, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Nichols Canyon and Outpost. It offers views of both the Los Angeles basin and the San Fernando Valley.

The eastern terminus of Mulholland Drive is at its intersection with Cahuenga Boulevard at the Cahuenga Pass over the Santa Monica Mountains (at this point Cahuenga Boulevard runs parallel to the 101). The road continues to the east offering vistas of the Hollywood Sign, downtown Los Angeles and then Burbank, Universal City and the rest of the San Fernando Valley.

The road winds along the top of the mountains until a few miles west of the 405 Freeway. At this point (the intersection with Encino Hills Drive) the drive becomes an unpaved route not open to motor vehicles. It is popular with hikers, horseback riders, and mountain bikers, and offers connections to other unpaved fire roads and mountain bike trails as well as a decommissioned Project Nike command post that has been turned into a Cold War memorial park .

The paved road begins again just east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Shortly thereafter, Mulholland Drive splits into Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Highway. Mulholland Drive terminates at the 101 where it becomes Valley Circle Boulevard. Mulholland Highway continues to the southwest until it terminates at California State Route 1 in Leo Carrillo State Park near the Pacific Ocean and the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

The main portion of the road, from the Cahuenga Pass in Hollywood westward past the Sepulveda Pass was originally called Mulholland Highway and was opened in 1924. It was built by a consortium of Hollywood Hills landowners hoping to make money by bringing development to the Hollywood Hills.
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