America's First Freeway

ARROYO SECO PARKWAY, AKA THE 110

- Collin Ryan

The first freeway in the United States is the 110 in Southern California, which began life as the Arroyo Seco Parkway. Caveat: there is a certain dependence on how the term “freeway” is defined, but more on that in a moment. In the meantime, let’s go with the accepted wisdom that “the 110” was the first and see where it takes us. If we started at the northern end, we’d be in Pasadena, home of the Rose Bowl, those geeks from The Big Bang Theory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CalTech, and the Art Center College of Design that has given us several influential automotive stylists like Chris Bangle (BMW), J Mays (current Ford F-150, among many others), Larry Shinoda (Corvette Stingray), Freeman Thomas (Audi TT), and Frank Stephenson (Ferrari, McLaren). However, with the exception of the Rose Bowl Stadium (completed in 1922), none of those things or people were around when the Arroyo Seco Parkway was conceived and built; the first survey was carried out in 1895. “Arroyo seco” means dry riverbed. Pasadena’s seasonal gulch was, in fact, nature’s own freeway back in the days of wagon trains. During the warmer and drier months, it would provide a shortcut for wagons between Pasadena and Los Angeles to the southwest. The road was created to run parallel with