Freeway Quiz Answer

Way back in November I posted a free-form quiz about a 1960 painting of a freeway interchange, shown above, asking you, the readers, to point out what has changed since the time of the painting. The first order of business, of course, would be to identify the interchange. My sister Dorothy correctly identified it as the interchange of the Santa Ana Fwy and the Long Beach Fwy, looking south down the Santa Ana. Today those freeways are I-5 and I-710, but at the time the Santa Ana Fwy. was US-101 and the 710 was CA-15. CA-15 became CA-7 in 1964 when they needed the 15 number for the Interstate that goes to Vegas, and then became I-710 in 1984 when it got approved as an Interstate. Thanks, www.cahighways.org.

My sister Connie points out the biggest physical change since 1960 in the painting, the odd onramp from surface streets into the left lanes of the 101 southbound. That onramp was demolished some number of years ago; I can't remember when but I think it may have been the early 1990s. The elevated part is gone, but the at-grade portion can still be seen in the median as a blocked-off "on-ramp from nowhere." You can see an aerial shot here.

Dorothy's notion about a tunnel is incorrect.