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Old Posted May 28, 2013, 1:15 AM
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Wig-Wag Wig-Wag is offline
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Crescent Heights Tract Map

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wig-Wag View Post
A trivia quiz.

Does anyone know why there are radiused curves connecting Sunset boulevard and Crescent heights?

Answer tomorrow night if no one has the answer before then.

Cheers,
Jack
The Answer:

The graceful curves connecting today’s North Crescent Heights Boulevard with Sunset Boulevard on the north and Santa Monica Boulevard on the south are part of an obscure element of Pacific Electric History known as the Quint Cutoff.

Some have attributed the building of the Quint Cutoff to Sherman and Clark in 1900, but it may have actually been in place much earlier as part of the Cahuenga Valley Railroad that was built in 1887 by James McLaughlin to link LA with Cahuenga Valley, a small community at the mouth of Cahuenga Pass. In addition to hauling passengers, the CVRR also serviced a small quarry off of today’s Sunset Boulevard, a short distance west of Laural Canyon. The curves are actually “wyes” for reversing the direction of the CVRR’s steam locomotives.

In 1890 the Cahuenga Valley RR was sold to E. Hurd and S.E. Madision who extended the line westward along Prospect Avenue to just east of what is now La Brea. In May of 1896 Hurd and Madision sold the CVRR to the above-mentioned Moses Sherman and Eli Clark, operators of the Los Angeles Pacific electric railway, which was in turn sold to Henry Huntington and became part of the Pacific Electric Railway. Little is known about the Quint Cutoff in PE days and no records of it’s abandonment exist in PE files It is thought to have been abandoned prior to 1911.

For additional information on the CVRR see:
http://www.beachwoodvoice.com/zzArch..._11%5B1%5D.pdf

Also, PE’s Cahuenga Valley Line: http://www.beachwoodvoice.com/zzArch..._11%5B1%5D.pdf

This Electric Railway Historical Association site contains route descriptions of most of PE’s lines that were discussed in “Lines of Pacific Electric”, by the late Ira L. Swett
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