Interstate 5 connects Los Angeles and Kern counties, but it can become a major choke point when the weather turns bad.
Holiday travelers will be tested again as a new cold storm arrives on the West Coast from the Aleutian Islands late Sunday, and snow levels are expected to lower from 2,000 to 3,000 feet. Mountain roads and passes are likely to be affected, and the National Weather Service warns those who need to travel into or through the mountains should not wait until Monday or Tuesday — New Year’s Eve — to do it.
The old route, known as the Ridge Route, opened in 1915 and was fully paved by 1919. According to a 1997 story in The Times, in an effort to minimize earth moving, it featured 697 curves, which caused drivers to make the equivalent of 110 complete circles as they crossed the mountains. It was a 20-foot-wide roadway carved out of the mountains with horse-drawn dirt scrapers.A vintage postcard depicts cars negotiating the curvy Ridge Route, where the speed limit was 15 mph.
The interstate came through in the late 1960s, creating a major economic link between the northern and southern parts of California.
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