Pasadena Cycleway (a freeway for bicycles) in 1900. Made mostly of wood, the elevated cycleway was designed to run from the Hotel Green in Pasadena to the Plaza in Los Angeles, and was an attempt to speed up transportation and accommodate the booming bicycle craze at the time. In some areas the cycleway was planned to be 50 feet above the ground. The toll was going to be 10 cents for a one-way trip or 15 cents for a two-way ticket, or cyclist could take one of the trains back up the hill. The sudden popularity of automobiles quickly made the cycleway obsolete and the project was abandoned after only one and a half miles of the intended nine mile track was completed.
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/LA%20hot%20rod%20history/cycleway1900.jpg)
looking south, ca.1900.
Pasadena Museum of History
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/LA%20hot%20rod%20history/CaliforniaCycleWay.jpg)
Pasadena Museum of History
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/LA%20hot%20rod%20history/2008-07-cycle_way.jpg)
Pasadena Museum of History
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/LA%20hot%20rod%20history/00061163.jpg)
The Cycleway passes behind the Pasadena Grand Opera House on Bellevue at Raymond in 1900.
Pasadena Museum of History
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/LA%20hot%20rod%20history/horace.jpg)
Horace Dobbins, creator of the California Cycleway in 1900 showing off what would be the Cycleway's downfall, an automobile. Pasadena Museum of History
http://highlandpark.wordpress.com/20...rnia-cycleway/
And speaking of speeding up transportation, here's some early L.A. hot rod history.
The earliest hot rod parts stores.
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/LA%20hot%20rod%20history/bellautoparts_resized.jpg)
George Wight’s Bell Auto Parts and Racing Equipment, established in 1923. Originally a junkyard, this building was built in 1928 at 3633 Gage Ave in Bell. The building still stands and I think there may be a bail bonds business occupying it now.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...446547&page=13
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/LA%20hot%20rod%20history/leechapelspeedshop_resized.jpg)
Lee’s Speed Shop, opened in 1929, sharing space with a junkyard, at 3263 San Fernando Road in Los Angeles. The shop moved in 1933 to 4557 Alhambra Avenue. Closed in 1937 and moved to Oakland.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...446547&page=13
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/LA%20hot%20rod%20history/orrspeedshop_01_resized.jpg)
Karl and Veda Orr’s Speed Shop in 1940 at 11140 Washington Place in Culver City. The shop quickly became a hangout for area hot rodders. It seems they closed the shop sometime in the 1950s, but reopened it on Sierra Highway in Mint Canyon, California in the 1960s.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...446547&page=13
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/LA%20hot%20rod%20history/Hot-rod-exhibition-1948.jpg)
The first annual Hot Rod Exposition was held in 1948 at the National Guard Armory in Los Angeles, California. 55,000 people visited the show during the three days it was held. The very first issue of Hot Rod Magazine was created as the program for the show. The whole show was the idea of Robert E. Petersen, he wanted to arrange the show in order to raise money to build a dragstrip. The actual dragstrip was never built.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...446547&page=13