Broadway Tunnel (Los Angeles)
Encyclopedia
The Broadway Tunnel was a tunnel
that ran under Fort Moore Hill
in Los Angeles, California
, downtown
, extending North Broadway
(formerly Fort Street), at Sand Street (later California Street), one block north of Temple Street
, northeast to the intersection of Bellevue Avenue (later Sunset Boulevard
, now Cesar Chavez Avenue), to Buena Vista Street (now North Broadway).
The proposal for opening Broadway
through to Buena Vista Street, and extending the street south into what was then part of Main Street
, below Tenth Street, in order to give a continuous, wide thoroughfare
from the southern city limits
to the Eastside
, was made as early as February 1891.
Plans were prepared by the city engineer
's office in early March 1895. The main argument for its construction was that a tunnel providing an additional opening on the north would decrease the constantly increasing traffic
(of horses, buggies and wagons, etc.), which was causing a dangerous jam
at the corner of First
and Spring Streets
.
Work began on the Broadway Tunnel on November 2, 1899, with about 25 men with team
s (of animals) moving obstructions out of the way in preparation for the actual excavation, from the north approach. Early on the morning of January 20, 1900, a laborer was buried under about 20 tons of falling earth at the north end of the tunnel. The timbers used as braces fell over the man in such a manner that he was saved from being crushed to death.
The tunnel was completed and opened for traffic on Saturday, August 17, 1901. The cost in its construction was $66,000. It was 760 feet (231.6 m) long, 40 feet (12.2 m) wide and 22 feet (6.7 m) high, with a grade of 6 in 100, falling toward the east.
According to an article in the Los Angeles Times
, the Third Street Tunnel, which was nearing completion at the time, could have been put inside the Broadway Tunnel leaving enough room for a sidewalk
8 feet (2.4 m) wide. The tunnel required more than 50,000 cubic yard
s (38 227.75 m3) of elevation
, 4,000 cubic yards (3 058.22 m3) of concrete
and 1.25 million of bricks
to line it. With the exception of the tunnel in Fairmount Park
in Philadelphia, which was 41 feet (12.5 m) in diameter
, but only 140 feet (42.7 m) long, the Broadway Tunnel was the widest tunnel of its type in the United States, and possibly in the world, at that time.
In 1915, the tunnel was closed for reconstruction. The roadway was lowered to decrease the grade, wood block flooring was installed to provide a noiseless surface for the heavy traffic of teams and automobile
s that would be passing through, and a false roof built inside the original shell. Because of the lowering, it was necessary to make a cut
of 14 feet (4.3 m) in California Street, and to change the grade of North Broadway from Temple Street to the tunnel. The concrete archway
of the Broadway Tunnel was 20 feet (6.1 m) high, and the entire bore was lined with white glazed tile
. The stairway
on the outer face of the southern portal
was extended to a rise of 65 feet (19.8 m) to Fort Moore Hill.
The work was completed and the tunnel reopened in early February 1916. Due to the importance of the artery
of travel, through which thousands of automobiles, teams and pedestrian
s would be passing daily, an event was held on Saturday, February 19, formally turning the tunnel over to the city, with the Automobile Club of Southern California
in charge.
The Broadway Tunnel was closed on June 2, 1949, and was demolished for the construction of the Hollywood Freeway. The route cut through Fort Moore Hill and made it necessary for a Broadway overpass
to be built across the freeway and the old tunnel site.
Tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
that ran under Fort Moore Hill
Fort Moore
Fort Moore was an historic U.S. Military Fort in Los Angeles, California, during the Mexican-American War. Its approximate location was at what is now the Hollywood Freeway near the intersection of North Hill Street and West Cesar Chavez Avenue, downtown....
in Los Angeles, California
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, downtown
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
, extending North Broadway
Broadway (Los Angeles)
Broadway is a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, that runs from Lincoln Heights on the Eastside, through Chinatown, passing through Central Plaza and the Dragon Gate, the Los Angeles Civic Center, passing the Los Angeles Times building at First Street, and Broadway's historic commercial...
(formerly Fort Street), at Sand Street (later California Street), one block north of Temple Street
Temple Street (Los Angeles)
Temple Street is a street in the City of Los Angeles, California. The street is an east-west thoroughfare that runs through Downtown Los Angeles parallel to the Hollywood Freeway between Virgil Avenue past Alameda Street to the banks of the Los Angeles River...
, northeast to the intersection of Bellevue Avenue (later Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
, now Cesar Chavez Avenue), to Buena Vista Street (now North Broadway).
The proposal for opening Broadway
Broadway (Los Angeles)
Broadway is a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, that runs from Lincoln Heights on the Eastside, through Chinatown, passing through Central Plaza and the Dragon Gate, the Los Angeles Civic Center, passing the Los Angeles Times building at First Street, and Broadway's historic commercial...
through to Buena Vista Street, and extending the street south into what was then part of Main Street
Main Street (Los Angeles)
Main Street is a major north-south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, and is the east-west postal divider for that city. It begins as a continuation of Valley Boulevard west of Mission Road in Lincoln Heights and ends at the Port of Los Angeles. At 9th Street, it merges with Spring Street in...
, below Tenth Street, in order to give a continuous, wide thoroughfare
Thoroughfare
A thoroughfare is a place of transportation intended to connect one location to another. Highways, roads, and trails are examples of thoroughfares used by a variety of general traffic. On land a thoroughfare may refer to anything from a rough trail to multi-lane highway with grade separated...
from the southern city limits
City limits
The terms city limits and city boundary refer to the defined boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limits is sometimes called the city proper. The terms town limits/boundary and village limits/boundary mean the same as city limits/boundary, but apply to towns and villages...
to the Eastside
East Los Angeles (region)
East Los Angeles is the portion of the City of Los Angeles that lies east of Downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles River and the unincorporated areas of Lincoln Heights, west of the San Gabriel Valley, East Los Angeles and City Terrace, south of Cypress Park, and north of Vernon, California and...
, was made as early as February 1891.
Plans were prepared by the city engineer
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
's office in early March 1895. The main argument for its construction was that a tunnel providing an additional opening on the north would decrease the constantly increasing traffic
Traffic
Traffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
(of horses, buggies and wagons, etc.), which was causing a dangerous jam
Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction...
at the corner of First
1st Street (Los Angeles)
1st Street is an east-west thoroughfare in Los Angeles and East Los Angeles, California. It serves as a postal divider between north and south and is one of a few streets to run from West Los Angeles to East Los Angeles...
and Spring Streets
Spring Street Financial District
The Spring Street Financial District, sometimes referred to as the Wall Street of the West, is a historic district in Downtown Los Angeles. The historic district includes 23 financial structures, including the city's first skyscraper, and three hotels all located along a stretch of South Spring...
.
Work began on the Broadway Tunnel on November 2, 1899, with about 25 men with team
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...
s (of animals) moving obstructions out of the way in preparation for the actual excavation, from the north approach. Early on the morning of January 20, 1900, a laborer was buried under about 20 tons of falling earth at the north end of the tunnel. The timbers used as braces fell over the man in such a manner that he was saved from being crushed to death.
The tunnel was completed and opened for traffic on Saturday, August 17, 1901. The cost in its construction was $66,000. It was 760 feet (231.6 m) long, 40 feet (12.2 m) wide and 22 feet (6.7 m) high, with a grade of 6 in 100, falling toward the east.
According to an article in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, the Third Street Tunnel, which was nearing completion at the time, could have been put inside the Broadway Tunnel leaving enough room for a sidewalk
Sidewalk
A sidewalk, or pavement, footpath, footway, and sometimes platform, is a path along the side of a road. A sidewalk may accommodate moderate changes in grade and is normally separated from the vehicular section by a curb...
8 feet (2.4 m) wide. The tunnel required more than 50,000 cubic yard
Cubic yard
A cubic yard is an Imperial / U.S. customary unit of volume, used in the United States, Canada, and the UK. It is defined as the volume of a cube with sides of 1 yard in length.-Symbols:...
s (38 227.75 m3) of elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
, 4,000 cubic yards (3 058.22 m3) of concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
and 1.25 million of bricks
Brickwork
Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door, and window openings, etc...
to line it. With the exception of the tunnel in Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park is the municipal park system of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It consists of 63 parks, with , all overseen by the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, successor to the Fairmount Park Commission in 2010.-Fairmount Park proper:...
in Philadelphia, which was 41 feet (12.5 m) in diameter
Diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...
, but only 140 feet (42.7 m) long, the Broadway Tunnel was the widest tunnel of its type in the United States, and possibly in the world, at that time.
In 1915, the tunnel was closed for reconstruction. The roadway was lowered to decrease the grade, wood block flooring was installed to provide a noiseless surface for the heavy traffic of teams and automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s that would be passing through, and a false roof built inside the original shell. Because of the lowering, it was necessary to make a cut
Cut (earthmoving)
In civil engineering, a cut or cutting is where soil or rock material from a hill or mountain is cut out to make way for a canal, road or railway line....
of 14 feet (4.3 m) in California Street, and to change the grade of North Broadway from Temple Street to the tunnel. The concrete archway
Arch
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
of the Broadway Tunnel was 20 feet (6.1 m) high, and the entire bore was lined with white glazed tile
Glazed tile
Glazed tiles were used in China since the Zhou Dynasty as building material for roof top. During the Song Dynasty, the manufacture of glazed tiles was standardized in Li Jie's Architecture Standard...
. The stairway
Stairway
Stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...
on the outer face of the southern portal
Portal (architecture)
Portal is a general term describing an opening in the walls of a building, gate or fortification, and especially a grand entrance to an important structure. Doors, metal gates or portcullis in the opening can be used to control entry or exit. The surface surrounding the opening may be made of...
was extended to a rise of 65 feet (19.8 m) to Fort Moore Hill.
The work was completed and the tunnel reopened in early February 1916. Due to the importance of the artery
Arterial road
An arterial road, or arterial thoroughfare, is a high-capacity urban road. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector roads to freeways, and between urban centres at the highest level of service possible. As such, many arteries are limited-access roads, or feature...
of travel, through which thousands of automobiles, teams and pedestrian
Pedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In some communities, those traveling using roller skates or skateboards are also considered to be pedestrians. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road or footpath, but this was not the case...
s would be passing daily, an event was held on Saturday, February 19, formally turning the tunnel over to the city, with the Automobile Club of Southern California
Automobile Club of Southern California
The Automobile Club of Southern California is the Southern California affiliate of the American Automobile Association federation of motor clubs...
in charge.
The Broadway Tunnel was closed on June 2, 1949, and was demolished for the construction of the Hollywood Freeway. The route cut through Fort Moore Hill and made it necessary for a Broadway overpass
Overpass
An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...
to be built across the freeway and the old tunnel site.