EB from the Santa Monica/West L.A. border, where CA 2 starts suddenly along the former route of US 66. Actually, 66 originally ended downtown at Broadway and 7th St. (then US 99), but moved out this way in 1934. The last photo is the new The Century, a condo tower 478 feet high that mimics the taller buildings in downtown L.A.


The California Temple of the Mormon church is on the north side at Overland Ave.


Having a U-turn signal is fine, but the arrow inside the signal head is most definitely not MUTCD compliant. From much of a distance to anyone who doesn't have 20/20 vision, this quickly just becomes a red blob. Come spy on it EB at Century Park E.


Heading east, Santa Monica Blvd. oddly splits into two parallel two-way roads separated by a very narrow strip of buildings at the Beverly Hills border. If you pass this sign on the left, you chose the wrong one, and in a couple of miles you'll suddenly be heading east on Burton Way. Bear left, pass this sign on the right, and you'll be transported back in time:


An EB run through the city. Is that enough button copy for you? How can such a posh city do such a poor job of updating its signs to stay current? I can't complain, though, because this is by far the single largest concentration of button copy street signs left in the country. Wilshire Blvd. is the location of the Santa Monica Blvd. sign atop this page. The church on the left is the Good Shepherd (given their location, they must have quite a nice tithing pool for upkeep), and the tower in the distance at Crescent Dr. is the top of Beverly Hills City Hall.


Here are some WB signs and replica lampposts I snapped while traveling east (in westward order). Check out the tilde over the Ņ in Caņon - one of the rarer elements to be shown in button copy. (It's also there EB, but I had enough to caption without it.)


Signs on the north side of the road in that stretch. The last one is at Beverly Blvd. to the east and Palm Dr. to the west. It's a four-way intersection, so the sign "3-way signal" is disconcerting. Does one of these directions not have a signal? Will cars exit Palm Drive indiscriminately and conflict with cross traffic? Actually, I don't know whether this was proper at the time, but in modern terminology, this would say "3-phase signal," meaning that Beverly Blvd. and Palm Dr. go separately because Beverly comes in at a slant.


One of the increasingly rare older styles of Los Angeles street sign, juxtaposed with the newest style in West Los Angeles.


Elvis lives (next to John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe) EB at Wilton Place. This, my friends, is Hollywood.


Don't expect Hollywood to have any newer signs than Beverly Hills, just without button copy. I really feel like these EB signs are as old as the Hollywood Freeway, but no, they can't have been erected in 1954. So let's presume they're second generation.


CA 2 EB turns onto US 101 here at the faded California-specific US shield, the kind that has remained unchanged since the 1960s while 49 other states went to black-background rectangles. This is one case where I don't want California to ever get with the program.


CA 2 EB with US 101 SB on their short concurrency, until CA 2 breaks off to become a freeway of its own.


Same stretch, WB/NB. The middle two photos are left and right on the same gantry.


One sign along the CA 2 freeway, heading northeast from I-5.


Looking north along "the 2" at "the 134," per Eve 6's lyrics, just west of Glendale Hills.


CA 2/I-210 WB between Exits 20 (Angeles Crest Dr.) and 19 (Glendale Freeway) on their short concurrency. Notice how CA 2 has been consistently east-west on my page until these signs. I don't know why I-210 gets it wrong, except maybe because Glendale Freeway is north-south, but this is one of the rare cases where there's no freeway name on the sign to cause confusion.

Continue west or east on old US 66/Santa Monica Boulevard
I-210 EB and 210/CA 2 EB

Onto I-405
Onto US 101
Onto I-210
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