Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the
City of Los Angeles
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 ...
and several other cities in western
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is th ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
. The street parallels
Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Boulevard between
Manhattan Beach and
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...
(LAX) are designated as part of
State Route 1 (SR 1).
Since 2018, there have actually been four distinct segments in Los Angeles County signed as Sepulveda Boulevard. The southernmost of the four segments is an east-west route located in the
South Bay, and continues west as Camino Real in
Torrance and east as Willow Street in
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporated ...
. The second segment runs from
Manhattan Beach north to the southern border of
El Segundo. The third segment runs from LAX, through the
Westside regions, and over the
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...
at the
Sepulveda Pass into the
San Fernando Valley. The northernmost section of Sepulveda Boulevard is in
Sylmar, running from Roxford Street north to
San Fernando Road
San Fernando Road is a major street in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. Within the Burbank city limits it is signed as San Fernando Boulevard, and north of Newhall Pass it is signed as The Old Road. It was previously designated ...
.
At one point, Sepulveda Boulevard was the longest street in the city and county of Los Angeles, with the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' reporting in 2006 that it was around in length.
The
City of El Segundo has since renamed their portion of SR 1 to Pacific Coast Highway.
History
In 1769, the Spanish
Portola expedition Portola may refer to:
* ''Portola'' (album), a 1998 album by Rose Melberg
* Portola, California
* Portola, San Francisco, California
People with the surname
* Gaspar de Portolá (ca. 1717-aft.1784), Spanish soldier, first governor of the Californi ...
, the first Europeans to see inland areas of California, traveled north through Sepulveda pass on August 5. The party had been travelling west, intending to reach and follow the coast, but were discouraged by the steep coastal cliffs beginning at today's
Pacific Palisades and decided to detour inland. They found the pass through the Santa Monica Mountains and followed it into the San Fernando Valley. The pass had originally been a faint footpath used by the native
Tongva
The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historica ...
people.
Sepulveda Boulevard was named in 1925 after 19th century cattle rancher
Francisco Xavier de Sepúlveda whose ranch,
Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica
Rancho or Ranchos may refer to:
Settlements and communities
*Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad
*Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California
**List of California Ranchos
*Ranchos, Buenos Ai ...
, extended from the route to the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
.
Between the
City of Hermosa Beach and Lincoln Boulevard, the road was once signed as
U.S. Route 101 Alternate until being replaced by
State Route 1
The following highways are numbered 1.
For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads.
For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads.
For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads.
For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads.
For roads numbered S ...
;
and between Lincoln Boulevard and San Fernando Road (formerly
US 99
U.S. Route 99 (US 99) was a main north–south United States Numbered Highway on the West Coast of the United States until 1964, running from Calexico, California, on the US–Mexico border to Blaine, Washington, on the U.S.-Canada border ...
), the road was once signed as
State Route 7 until being replaced by
Interstate 405.
The part of the route that runs through the
San Fernando Valley was a major hub of
prostitution. The entertainment industry has also referenced the street. The 1931 comedy film ''
Everything's Rosie'' has a chase scene that goes through the newly built Sepulveda Blvd tunnel. In 1946,
Jay Livingston
Jay Livingston (born Jacob Harold Levison, March 28, 1915 – October 17, 2001) was an American composer best known as half of a song-writing duo with Ray Evans that specialized in songs composed for films. Livingston wrote music and Evans th ...
&
Ray Evans
Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter. He was a partner in a composing and song-writing duo with Jay Livingston, known for the songs they composed for films. Evans wrote the lyrics and Livi ...
wrote "SEPULVEDA" in tribute to the street. "SEPULVEDA" was recorded by Alvino Rey and his Orchestra with Joanne Ryan, Capitol Records, 262 and The King's Jesters, Vogue Records, 766. Sepulveda Boulevard, along with
Pico Boulevard
Pico may refer to:
Places The Moon
* Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin
Portugal
* Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde
* Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribei ...
, is mentioned in the title and lyrics of a novelty song ''
Pico and Sepulveda'' composed by Eddie Maxwell (Eddie Cherkose) and
Jule Styne
Jule Styne (; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became ...
. The song was recorded by
Freddy Martin and his orchestra in 1947 for a release as a
single.
Name changes
Portions of Sepulveda Boulevard have had the name changed, especially most of those segments that were designated by state officials as part of State Route 1.
Hermosa Beach
Hermosa Beach (''Hermosa'', Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of ...
historian John Hales said that the city formally adopted the name of Pacific Coast Highway in 1947 to possibly end a dispute to whether to name the route Sepulveda or Camino Real. In 2018 the city of
El Segundo also decided to formally change the name to Pacific Coast Highway to better appeal to visitors as being a coastal community.
Route description
Since 2018, there are four distinct segments in Los Angeles County signed as Sepulveda Boulevard.
The southernmost segment is an east-west route located in the
South Bay area that continues east as Willow Street near
SR 103 in
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporated ...
, and west as Camino Real before Torrance Boulevard in
Torrance. It crosses the
Harbor Freeway (I-110) in
West Carson
West Carson is an unincorporated community in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 21,699 at the 2010 census, up from 21,138 at the 2000 census. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined West Carson as a c ...
.
Sepulveda Boulevard then resumes at
Artesia Boulevard in
Manhattan Beach as a continuation of
SR 1. In 2018, the city of
El Segundo renamed their portion of SR 1 to Pacific Coast Highway from
Rosecrans Avenue to
Imperial Highway where SR 1 continues again as Sepulveda Boulevard. Past Imperial Highway, it crosses the western terminus of the
Century Freeway (I-105), going through the
LAX Airport Tunnel to pass under its runways. The road then passes through an interchange with
Century Boulevard, which provides access to LAX's terminals to the west and the
San Diego Freeway (I-405) to the east.
At the north end of LAX, SR 1 branches to the west as
Lincoln Boulevard while Sepulveda Boulevard continues north to become a primary thoroughfare through the
Westside region cities and communities of
Westchester
Westchester most commonly refers to Westchester County, New York, immediately north of New York City.
__NOTOC__
It may also refer to: Geography Canada
*Westchester Station, Nova Scotia, Canada
United States
*Town of Westchester, the original seat ...
,
Culver City
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...
,
West Los Angeles
West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...
, and
Westwood. In Culver City, north of
Slauson Avenue
Slauson Avenue is a major east–west thoroughfare traversing the central part of Los Angeles County, California. It was named for the land developer and Los Angeles Board of Education member J. S. Slauson. It passes through Culver City, L ...
, it merges for a few blocks with
Jefferson Boulevard
Jefferson Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles and Culver City, California. Its eastern terminus is at Central Avenue east of Exposition Park. At its entrance to Culver City, it splits with National Boulevard. North of Sawtelle Boulevard, it ...
. From Jefferson, Sepulveda Boulevard runs parallel to I-405 as it goes through West Los Angeles and Westwood, passing the
Los Angeles National Cemetery.
After going past
Bel Air, it parallels the freeway up the Sepulveda Canyon. At the
Skirball Cultural Center, Sepulveda Boulevard then curves west away from I-405, passes through a tunnel under
Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties is nam ...
, and then follows a serpentine route down the north side of the
Sepulveda Pass. It then passes under I-405 just before crossing
Ventura Boulevard
Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east–west thoroughfares in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. Ventura Boulevard is one of the oldest routes in the San Fernando Valley as it was originally a part o ...
in
Sherman Oaks. Sepulveda Boulevard then runs parallel to the east of I-405, crossing the
Ventura Freeway (US 101) and the
Los Angeles Metro G Line rapid transit route, and through the
San Fernando Valley communities of
Van Nuys
Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
History
In 1909, ...
and
North Hills, to its northern terminus at the Rinaldi Street interchange with I-405 in
Mission Hills.
The northernmost section of Sepulveda Boulevard is in
Sylmar, running from Roxford Street to
San Fernando Road
San Fernando Road is a major street in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. Within the Burbank city limits it is signed as San Fernando Boulevard, and north of Newhall Pass it is signed as The Old Road. It was previously designated ...
, is primarily a
frontage road
A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. A frontage road is often used to provide access to private drive ...
along the
Golden State Freeway (I-5). Prior to the construction of the 405 freeway in the 1960s, that disjunct piece and the main section of Sepulveda Boulevard were one continuous street, separated when the 405 freeway interchange with the Golden State Freeway was built atop the section between Rinaldi and Roxford Streets.
Public transportation
Public transit
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typic ...
along Sepulveda Boulevard is provided by several different bus lines. The north-south part provides bus service in the San Fernando Valley by
Metro Local
Los Angeles Metro Bus is the transit bus service in Los Angeles County, California operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .
, there are ...
line 234, through the
Sepulveda Pass by
Metro Rapid
Metro Rapid is a local express bus service with bus rapid transit (BRT) characteristics in Los Angeles County, California.
At its peak, Metro had dozens of Rapid routes, but , the system has been largely discontinued. Just three Metro operated Rap ...
line 761, through West Los Angeles, Culver City and LAX by
Culver City Transit
Culver CityBus is a public transport agency operating in Culver City, California, currently serving Culver City, the unincorporated community of Marina del Rey, and the adjacent Los Angeles neighborhoods.
Its regular fleet is painted bright gr ...
Line 6 and Rapid 6, and from LAX onwards by Metro Local line 232. The west-east portion of Sepulveda Boulevard provides bus service by
Torrance Transit line 7.
Metro Rail has a
station
Station may refer to:
Agriculture
* Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production
* Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle
** Cattle statio ...
at Exposition Blvd on the
E Line while
Metro Busway has a
station of the same name on the
G Line. The
A Line has a
station
Station may refer to:
Agriculture
* Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production
* Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle
** Cattle statio ...
in Long Beach at
Long Beach Blvd within Willow Street.
Major intersections
References
External links
Illustrated tour of Sepulveda BoulevardSepulveda Blvd tunnel under Mulholland history
{{Streets in Los Angeles
Streets in Los Angeles
Streets in Los Angeles County, California
Streets in the San Fernando Valley
Los Angeles Harbor Region
San Fernando Valley
Santa Monica Mountains
South Bay, Los Angeles
Westside (Los Angeles County)
California State Route 1
Red-light districts in California