![]() ![]() That effort involved a culture agenda, a middle-class environmentalism, and aesthetics expressed as beauty, order, system, and harmony.”īutler wanted each bridge to have a theme or aesthetic that represented the city and his design philosophy. Wilson wrote in his 1994 book about the phenomenon, saw “Americans attempt to refashion their cities into beautiful, functional entities. Built through the 1920s and the early 1930s, they remain the most visible and lovely expression of the then-chief city engineer Merrill Butler’s belief in the “City Beautiful” movement: the late 19th/early 20th-century design philosophy that, as William H. I explained to him what many Los Angeles residents-as well as city officials and sad-but-resigned preservationists-already know: The Sixth Street Viaduct (it isn’t officially classified as a bridge the term viaduct means that the structure crosses over multiple features, in this case two sets of train tracks, two freeways, and numerous city streets, in addition to the river itself) has cancer.Įach of the 10 bridges that cross the L.A. He’s filmed underneath the Sixth Street Viaduct dozens of times, including the shoot for the former California governor’s The Last Action Hero, and he was genuinely shocked when I told him earlier this fall that demolition would soon begin on the span. You can see him aboard a Harley-Davidson in Terminator 2-which many car-chase enthusiasts believe contains the greatest vehicular pursuit ever filmed-racing down a narrow, junk-strewn concrete creek that feeds into the Los Angeles River. Peter Kent spent much of the 1980s and ‘90s working as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stunt double. Or from dozens upon dozens of music videos, from Kanye West to Madonna to Kid Rock. ![]() Or from Them, the 1954 classic of paranoid science fiction, featuring giant irradiated ants that crawled from the very tunnel you just exited. Or, in digitized form, from Grand Theft Auto, the video game that seeks to train junior carjackers and flesh traders. You might recognize it from the 1978 film Grease, where it was the site of John Travolta’s climactic drag race. You’re underneath the Sixth Street Viaduct, the most iconic and most beautiful (at least according to general consensus) of the 13 pre-World War II spans that traverse the city’s eponymous river, separating downtown from East Los Angeles. What you’ve just done is illegal-you need a permit-but you’ve arrived, and you know this spot. Hit the gas (everybody does) and when you burst into the light, pull the wheel hard to the left and head north. The only daylight comes out of a rectangular opening a few hundred yards ahead of you. Suddenly, you’re in a long, unlit tunnel. As soon as you’re in the shadows of the overhanging structure, make a hard left. At this point, Sixth Street is now elevated, running above you. When you get to Sixth Street, maneuver around to Santa Fe Avenue, named after the old railroad line. ![]() Then turn north, maybe on Alameda, where you’ll speed past warehouses and fast-food spots and strip joints. If you’re coming from the west, exit the I-10 freeway at Grand Avenue. If you want to film a car chase in Los Angeles, here’s the playbook. ![]()
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