Let’s do a bit of car spotting today with these images of freeways and highways from the ’50s and ’60s. Unsurprisingly, most are in California and to offset that imbalance we start with the view of Chicago’s skyline above, taken from the Kennedy Expressway in 1965.
Beyond that Chicago shot, about everything else is in California. Two exceptions, the black and white shot on Houston’s Highway 59, with the Isetta. And the one with New York’s skyline in the distance.
Anyone know where pic#3 is?
I was sure someone with local LA knowledge would respond to you.
All I did was a photo search, turning up this similar postcard pic of (I think) the same general area (1956), which shows the Harbor Fwy (I-110) at about Sixth St.
https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/30190/#slide=gs-212350
As for dating the CC photo, LA electric trolley buses stopped in 1963, but the newest cars look mid 50s to me.
Thank you. I concur on the time frame. Was just curious as there seems to be almost no traffic on the roads.Seemed like it couldn’t be “L/A”.
Perhaps was taken early on a Sunday or a holiday.
Thanks again.
HOW DIFFERENT TO SEE A BMW ISETTA IN THE MIX OF TRAFFIC IN PIC#4. I SAW ONE ONCE HERE IN TORONTO ON, LICENCED FOR ONTARIO, IN 1975.
It’s remarkable that the Izetta is a 600, a vehicle quite diferente from the original bubble car
The Falcon looks huge next to the Isetta, particularly with that camera angle!
#5 is the RT 1&9 east viaduct in Jersey City NJ driving east towards the Holland Tunnel
Number 5 appears to be the Gowanus Expwy in Brooklyn. The Gowanus is at its highest as it crosses the Gowanus Canal. This shot is on the downward slope heading towards the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The highway sign is showing the Brooklyn Queens Expwy to the right; bearing to the left is the tunnel entrance.
Anyone know what the white car with 2 round taillights in the bottom middle of pic#1 is?
Second-generation Chevrolet Corvair.
Corvair
I can’t imagine what will happen if you involve with an accident in that small BMW. I believe you will probably be safer to ride on motorcycles than on that tiny car.
For highway buffs, I offer three (3) book titles of interest, with lots of photos, from the “Images of America” series, by Arcadia Publishing: “Building the Mass Pike”; “Boston’s Central Artery”; and “Building Route 128”.
https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9780738511634/?queryID=23cf3141ed5b6f206569fe6813eaf000&objectID=9780738511634&insightsIndex=arcadia-publishing_products
https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9780738509723/?queryID=8072966198d5ac9fd8f9b03127518715&objectID=9780738509723&insightsIndex=arcadia-publishing_products
https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9780738505268/?queryID=b553ef5089c4d5905ab2e516ad1d81fd&objectID=9780738505268&insightsIndex=arcadia-publishing_products
Not only mostly California but mostly the Los Angeles region. No surprise as most back east in the 60s, me included, had heard/seen Los Angeles all over the place while San Francisco was limited to Tony Bennett. San Jose had Dionne Warwick. San Diego? What’s San Diego.
The monstrosity when new. It was once proposed to have 10 freeways crisscrossing San Francisco in the early 50’s. Heavy citizen revolt axed seven of them leaving three. This was one before citizen revolt halted it’s finish in 1959.
Oh boy, my old friend, the hated 480 (Embarcadero Fwy). No argument it was an eyesore — but from a financial district apartment it was a wickedly quick way in and out of town.
Anyhow, that picture of it when spanking new reminds me of these ads —
before the citizens went on revolt, the’ 59 Oldsmobiles went “on parade:”
I posted this here several years ago. The Queensway (Highway 417) In Ottawa, Canada, in the Spring of 1971. Explains, why some cars are quite dirty, and there is road grit along the shoulders. Remnants of Ottawa’s snowiest winter, where 444.6 cms fell that season, at the Ottawa International Airport.
It is a large image, so lots to see. Good mix of large domestics, and exotic imports. Nice contrast of old-style streetlight on Parkdale Avenue (lower left). And state-of-the-art streetlights on the Queensway.
Detailed highway history here:
http://www.thekingshighway.ca/PHOTOS/Hwy417photos.htm
Streetview today. Not much to see, due to sound barriers. Barriers badly rusted, due to heavy road salt use.
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3949088,-75.7298838,3a,75y,13.71h,88.51t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1stwN4JtgTx_9spyPVFJIHbA!2e0!5s20230501T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DtwN4JtgTx_9spyPVFJIHbA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D13.707636542140534%26pitch%3D1.489767951194537%26thumbfov%3D90!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&coh=205410&entry=ttu
Is that a ’57 Desoto wagon in pic#2?
Close, I think it’s a 1957-58 Dodge wagon.
Ah, the ‘good old days’ that never were in So. Cal. choking smote and pollution every where .
Nevertheless I like these pictures and can remember riding / driving my oldies there too .
-Nate
Highway 59 in Houston still looks like that, during morning and evening commutes. Just newer cars…..
I want to say this is 59 in the SW side of Midtown(Montrose area), but with only trees for landmarks it’s hard to say. That’s the part of it that would have been below grade back then. More of that section is now; some of what was formerly above grade and street level is now below grade. Great until we have heavy rain…. drainage can’t keep up and it floods. Any below grade freeway or underpass is a place to avoid during or after a heavy rain event. Your life and others’ lives may well depend on it!
The last picture with the yellow VW in it was taken looking north from the southbound lanes of Southern California’s famous 405, just south of the then recently completed Richard M. Nixon 90 freeway interchange. The freeway was named after President Nixon due the the fact that it was intended to run from Marina Del Rey all the way to Nixon’s home town of Yorba Linda. Only sections of the western and eastern ends were ever completed, the western section in the picture being about 3.25 miles in length.
That Beetle on the 405’s triggered a bit of a Proustian rush…thanks!
That BMW 600 was an odd choice. They weren’t that popular even in Germany. The 700 was far more normal and helped save the business, though writing-off the development costs incorrectly nearly drove BMW into Daimler’s clutches.
Note the blackened center of traffic lanes. I saw this becoming progressively less through the ’70s. By the ’80s it was largely gone.
The result of oil leaks from the engine/transmission, but primarily due to road draft tubes prior to PCV systems.
Driver’s Ed courses used to warn about slick roadways at the start of a rain–the rain water would wash a fraction of the oily mess into the traffic lanes where the tires rode.
California’s first “smog device” was the closed breather system required on new 1961 cars and retrofitted to 1955 and later cars upon transfer of ownership.
The reality is that most of roads in and around Chicago are pretty much the same old roads, albeit with the shoulders narrowed to make room for another lane, mostly for buses. The suburbs have seen some added tollroads but that I55 is just yhe same old path it was in 1967. Jammed up crowden it and deterioring underneath because of all the salt applications in winter(7 months long in Chicago)
no one seemed to notice the smog and oil drip line in center of road cars have come a long way
I miss the vintage street lamps that dotted the landscape of the ’60’s.