California State Route 138
|
|
California State Route 138 is an east-west highway generally following the northern foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, USA between Gorman, junction Interstate 5 eastward to Crestline, junction California State Route 18 in the San Bernardino Mountains. Except at its terminus with Interstate 5 and a segment sharing California State Route 14, it is all surface road, mostly undivided two-lane road. The remaining section of the Ridge Route, California's first highway connecting the San Joaquin Valley to the Los Angeles Basin ends at 138 in Gorman.
Its western leg, Avenue D, is a straight two lane rural road. After its co-routing with the Antelope Valley Freeway (CA-14) through Lancaster and Palmdale, it passes through Palmdale's eastside as four-laned Palmdale Boulevard and 47th Street East. Through Littlerock and Pearblossom the road's eastern leg, now called Pearblossom Highway, reverts to two lanes. California 18's western terminus siphons off Las Vegas-bound travelers from 138 before the Los Angeles/ San Bernardino County line. East of the county line it becomes very mountainous and scenic as it leads to winter resort areas used largely by residents of greater Los Angeles and greater San Diego. It crosses Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass; east of I-15, traffic on 138 is rather sparse. The remaining road past Silverwood Lake is very narrow and twisting, and not a prime mountain route to the San Bernadino Mountain resorts.
Because of its twisting, mountainous segments and overloaded traffic conditions on its eastern leg, CA-138 east of Palmdale and west of Interstate 15 is not recommended as a bypass of the congested megalopolis of Southern California. 138's alignment between I-15 and Palmdale is the site of numerous serious auto accidents as of 2004, according to CHP data. One of the chief contributors to accidents on CA-138 of late is drivers passing on the two lane highway in unsafe conditions. A recent accident involved a vehicle leaving the roadway near the California Aqueduct, careening through the desert and crashing into the aqueduct.
Parts of the distinctive highway were used in the filming of the movie The Long, Long Trailer, a 1954 comedy with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Despite the rapid growth of Southern California in the ensuing fifty years, the segment shown in the movie is little changed since the movie was filmed.
David Hockney composed the picturesque photographic collage Pearblossom Highway in 1986 off of the segment of Route 138 bearing that moniker. It may be viewed at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
External links
- imdb: The Long, Long Trailer (1954) (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0047191/)
- Pearblossom Highway (1986) (http://www.getty.edu/artsednet/images/Ph/pearblossom-xl.jpeg)Template:California State Highway Stub
