Outro — Chinatown / State Historic Park gateway
The north edge of downtown — where "the ten to the five" comes true, and the parkway heads for Pasadena.
Key facts
- On your left is Los Angeles State Historic Park (the old "Cornfield" rail yard), with Chinatown just beyond — the north edge of downtown, where the street grid gives out and the parkway bends into the Arroyo Seco.
- Just ahead, at Avenue 26, the 110 really does meet the 5 (exits 26A/26B) — so the drive's nickname, "from the 10 to the 5," turns out to be literally true.
- From here the Arroyo Seco Parkway carries on toward Highland Park, South Pasadena and Pasadena, ending at Glenarm Street — but the downtown story closes here.
Narration transcript
And here's where downtown lets go. On your left, that broad open green is the Los Angeles State Historic Park — once a railroad yard people called "the Cornfield," now a stretch of grass with the skyline framed behind it — and just past it, Chinatown. This is the north edge of downtown; the tight grid of towers is behind you now, and the parkway is bending away into the Arroyo Seco.
Remember how we started — the drive everyone calls "the ten to the five"? Here's the payoff. Just ahead, at Avenue 26, this road genuinely meets the 5. The nickname wasn't loose talk after all; you really have driven the 110 from the 10 to the 5, end to end.
And think about what that was. You started under the tallest skyline in the West, drove past the newest tower and the one it beat, past the mirrored hotel and the hall of silver sails — and then the road itself turned out to be the oldest thing of all: the world's first stack interchange, the 1930s tunnels, and the first freeway in the West, opened in 1940. Eighty years of Los Angeles, in four miles. Drive safe — and thanks for riding shotgun.