On Apr 26, 2006, at 7:22 PM, Carb7008@cs.com wrote:
> Fellow listers,
>
> I am currently reading a new/old book entitled Riding High by
> Arthur Judsen
> Palmer (1956). This book describes the development of bicycles and
> bicycling
> from its modern (not counting DaVinci) inception in the early 1800s
> to mid-20th
> century. Facinating read and certainly makes you wonder and
> appreciate what
> kind of world we would have if petroleum and internal combustion
> hadn't
> eclipsed cycling. For example, in 1900 there was an elevated,
> grade-compensated
> wooden cycleway that ran the 9 miles from Pasadena to Los Angeles,
> California
> that included toll gates. What anyone familiar with that route
> would give to fly
> down that cycleway! Similar, though perhaps not as elaborate,
> cycleways
> were built in many major cities of USA.
>
> Jack Romans
> Sacrmanto, CA
Didn't really happen that way... (I live a mile away from where it was).
"Pasadena Cycleway: The world's first elevated cycleway, which was slated to run nine miles between Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles. The wooden construction was to have two six foot wide lanes, and a maximum grade of 3%, made possible with elevations of three to 50 feet off the ground. Incandescent lighting was going to be placed every 50 feet. For a ten cent toll, riders were to be permitted to stay on the cycleway all day, and have access to a 100 acre park.
The economics looked very good at the time of planning, and by 1900, a single lane was built that went two miles out of Pasadena. At that time, however, the Southern Pacific Railroad, fearing competition, got an injunction issued against construction of a bridge over their railroad. In the meantime, interest in cycling began to wind down with the growing popularity of the automobile, and the cycleway eventually failed and was torn down by the city of Pasadena."
The first Freeway (1939 Arroyo Seco Freeway, now Pasadena Freeway) is built on the right of way.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
.