Intro — the 110/10 interchange
The oldest freeway in the West, about to run up the front row of the tallest skyline in the West — eyes on the road; let this ride shotgun.
Key facts
- South of the I-10 the 110 is the Harbor Freeway (I-110); at the I-10 interchange — the Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Memorial Interchange, named for the Korean-American independence leader — it becomes State Route 110 and runs up the western edge of downtown to the Four Level, then north as the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
- The downtown SR-110 runs literally "from the 10 to the 5": it begins here at the I-10 and meets I-5 at Avenue 26, just past the Figueroa tunnels — so the route's nickname is exactly true.
- North of the Four Level the 110 is the Arroyo Seco Parkway, opened 1940, the first freeway in the American West — so for these four-plus miles you are on a piece of road older than almost everything it passes.
Narration transcript
Welcome — and before we roll, one thing about how this tour works. If you're the one driving, this is an audio tour: keep your eyes on the road and let the voice do the work. The screen is for your passenger, or for when you're parked. Nobody needs to crane up at a skyscraper on this trip — I'll tell you what you're passing.
Now, where you are. You're heading north on the 110 through downtown Los Angeles, and you've just come through the interchange with the 10 — it has a name, the Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Memorial Interchange, after a hero of Korean independence who lived here. This is the start of the famous downtown stretch, the one people mean when they say "the ten to the five." And here's the surprise we'll come back to: that name is exactly right. This road really does run from the 10 to the 5.
For the next few miles two stories ride alongside each other. On your right, the tallest skyline in the American West is about to line up, tower by tower. And under your wheels is the oldest freeway in the West. Let's drive.