Hill Street Tunnel referred to a series of rail and road tunnels in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Initially constructed to bypass the grades of the street's namesake Bunker Hill, one bore of the dual-bore tunnel served as the roadway of Hill Street while the other facilitated

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

s and

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

trains via a double track

dual-gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to ca ...

railway. One tunnel ran between Temple and 1st Streets. The rail bore was built by the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad and was opened for traffic on September 15, 1909. The company rebuilt of their track as standard gauge the night before the tunnel's opening. The new private route cut twelve minutes off the trip to downtown for

Hollywood Line The Hollywood Line was a local streetcar line of the Pacific Electric Railway. It primarily operated between Downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood, with some trips as far away as Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. It was the company's busiest ro ...

and

Sherman Line Sherman most commonly refers to: *Sherman (name), a surname and given name (and list of persons with the name) ** William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), American Civil War General *M4 Sherman, a tank Sherman may also refer to: Places United St ...

cars. Pacific Electric cars continued through a second tunnel between Temple and Sunset. The roadway bore opened to traffic on September 9, 1913. The

Los Angeles Railway The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent local ...

ran streetcars through the southern tunnel starting in July 1939. Rail service through the tunnels was discontinued with the opening of the Hollywood Subway and the

Hollywood Freeway The Hollywood Freeway is one of the principal freeways of Los Angeles, California (the boundaries of which it does not leave) and one of the busiest in the United States. It is the principal route through the Cahuenga Pass, the primary shortcut ...

. The tunnels and hill itself were leveled by 1955 and the

Los Angeles Civic Center The Civic Center neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, is the administrative core of the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, and a complex of city, county, state, and federal government offices, buildings, and courthouses. It is loca ...

was built on the land. The northern tunnel was partially filled with dirt and remained unused until 1967 when part of it was excavated and turned into underground storage for the rebuilt Los Angeles Unified School District offices on the surface. The tunnel served in this capacity until 2003, when the Central Los Angeles High School #9 was built and the tunnel again filled.

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Hill Street Tunnel at Temple
— photo at the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Pacific Electric infrastructure History of Los Angeles Road tunnels in California Railroad tunnels in California Railway lines closed in 1955 Tunnels in Los Angeles Tunnels completed in 1909 Westlake, Los Angeles 1909 establishments in California 1955 disestablishments in California Demolished buildings and structures in Los Angeles {{US-tunnel-stub

See also

References

External links