Monday, August 21, 2006

LA's Longest Street

(When I say "LA's Longest Street," of course I mean the CITY OF Los Angeles.)

So, earlier this month, Westward Ho posted about the world's longest street and ultimately found Sepulveda to meet her needs at 31.5 miles. Well, actually, Westward Ho doesn't even mention it, but the longest street IN one city as revealed by LA CityBeat (what I've known for a while): the full sections of Figueroa - from Eagle Rock to Wilmington. It's original length makes it the world's longest street within one city.

Remember, the Figueroa Street Tunnels were once part of this street before it was the 110 Freeway's northbound lanes. As evidence, if you look back while riding through the tunnels on the 110 north, you can see the architectural feature of the City Seal - which would only be designed as such if the tunnels were "two way" (it mirrors the often graffiti covered seals seen by all motorists heading north on the south-facing sides of the tunnels). This connection to the Eagle Rock in the north makes this street the longest in one municipality.

So, though Sepulveda may be longer from Sylmar to the Southbay, it runs through Los Angeles, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance, and the list goes on... Figueroa is in LA (and a tiny part of Carson).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about Foothill Blvd and San Fernando Rd. I always thought those two might hold the record for world's longest streets, even though they are not in LA.

Adam Villani said...

While there are some streets that are longer, I think it's pretty remarkable how Western Ave. is almost perfectly straight from Los Feliz all the way down to 235th Street, about 21 miles away. There's a very slight shift in alignment at 190th St., but that's it.

Bob Timmermann said...

The acknowledged "world's longest street" was Yonge Street, which started in Toronto and ran for 1896 kilometers through Ontario, but the street is cut up into parts now and it's really more of a highway.

I believe Avenue J through the Antelope Valley is far longer than Sepulveda. I think it goes over 50 miles. Granted, that is not the city of L.A., but the post that started this referred to "world's" longest street and not "L.A.'s"