page_title: Ridge Route
section_title: Route description
hierarchical_section_title: Ridge Route / Route description
caption_attribution_description: English: This location on the Ridge Route in California required steam power to make the cut, which was made narrow to save on roadbuilding expenses. Today it is best used as a one lane road, shared with any drivers coming from the opposing direction. The color of the rock - a yellowish hue - may have led to the naming of this cut after a Northern European country's inhabitants. Looking northbound.
context_page_description: The Ridge Route, officially the Castaic–Tejon Route, was a two-lane highway between Los Angeles County and Kern County, California. Opened in 1915 and paved with concrete between 1917 and 1921, the road was the first paved highway directly linking the Los Angeles Basin with the San Joaquin Valley over the Tejon Pass and the rugged Sierra Pelona Mountains ridge south of Gorman. Much of the old road runs through the Angeles National Forest, and passes many historical landmarks, including the National Forest Inn, Reservoir Summit, Kelly's Half Way Inn, Tumble Inn, and Sandberg's Summit Hotel. North of the forest, the Ridge Route passed through Deadman's Curve before ending at Grapevine.
  The road was bypassed by the three-lane Ridge Route Alternate, then U.S. Route 99, to handle increased traffic and remove curves; the Alternate in Los Angeles County was completed in 1933, and Kern County line to Grapevine in 1936. The four-lane US 99 was completed in 1953 and replaced by an eight-lane freeway, Interstate 5 in 1960-70. The portion of the road in the Angeles National Forest was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, by the efforts of Harrison Scott.
context_section_description: The Ridge Route was officially the Castaic–Tejon Route. The official limits of the Ridge Route, as built in the 1910s, were SR 126 at Castaic Junction and the bottom of the grade at Grapevine. Until 1930 the road from San Fernando to Castaic Junction ran through the Newhall Tunnel at San Fernando Pass and along San Fernando Road, Magic Mountain Parkway (both part of SR 126 until the early 2000s) and Feedmill Road to a former bridge over the Santa Clara River. A 1930 bypass of the tunnel and Newhall through Weldon Canyon is now part of The Old Road.
  From Castaic Junction north to Castaic the Ridge Route has been largely buried by the Ridge Route Alternate and Interstate 5. At Castaic the Ridge Route Alternate turned northwest from the old road, now the intersection of Castaic Road and Neely Street. The first piece of Ridge Route Road out of Castaic was realigned as recently as the late 1990s when the North Lake housing development was built. The road begins to climb after passing North Lake; a portion was straightened in 1924 and now is next to the southbound lanes of I-5. In this area, known as the Five-Mile Grade, the four-lane Ridge Route Alternate became the northbound lanes of I-5, while the added four-lane alignment, built to the east (next to the old Ridge Route), had lower grades and became the southbound (downhill) lanes to cut down on runaway trucks. Two bridges were built to allow traffic to cross to the left side. Near the north end of this area, the Ridge Route curves away from the newer bypass. The road enters the Angeles National Forest about one mile (1.6 km) south of Templin Highway, with the Forest Service road designation 8N04.
  Establishments in the forest included the National Forest Inn, Kelly's Half Way Inn, Tumble Inn, and Sandberg's Summit Hotel.
  The National Forest Inn was on the west side of the road. A popular place, composed of white clapboard buildings, it was described in a 1932 highway beautification pamphlet as "the sort of filling station that gets into a national forest and is no addition thereto". On October 14, 1932,  a fire began in the garage, and took over a day to put out. When the Ridge Route Alternate bypassed the site to the west, the inn was not rebuilt, and all that remains are concrete steps.
  About two miles (3.2 km) north of the National Forest Inn is Serpentine Drive, where the road curves around the sides of hills as it climbs out of a low point in the route (about 3,200 feet (980 m) above sea level). North of the curves, the road passes through Swede's Cut, also called Big Cut, Culebra Excavation, or Castaic Cut. The cut was the largest on the route, with a depth of 110 feet (34 m).
  Reservoir Summit, also called Reservoir Hill, is 3,883 feet (1,184 m) above sea level. The Reservoir Summit Café was a popular high-class restaurant on the east side of the road, closed in the late 1920s; the foundation remains. The summit was named after a now-dry reservoir, one of three probably built for the concrete used in paving the road. 
  Kelly's Half Way Inn was roughly halfway between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, on a small knoll with a single tree on the east side of the road; all that remains is remnants of the foundation. 
  The Tumble Inn, later Mountain View Lodge, was on the west side of the road, and closed when the Ridge Route Alternate opened in 1933. Steps, including the top step with "TUMBLE INN" in the concrete, and a retaining wall remain.
  The Sandberg's Summit Hotel, later Sandberg's Lodge, was just north of Liebre Summit, the highest point (4,233 feet (1,290 m)) on the road, at 4,170 feet (1,270 m) above sea level. The hotel was built in 1914 and served travelers from the opening of the road in 1915. Built of logs, it was a high-class hotel. The place, which had become a ceramics factory, burned down on April 29, 1961, from a fire started by the new owner—who was converting it into a "camp-type operation" for underprivileged children—burning trash in the fireplace. The lease from the U.S. Forest Service was canceled in 1963, and only portions of the foundation and a rock w
caption: Looking north through Swede's Cut
exif: {}