page_title: Interstate 210 and State Route 210 (California)
section_title: The 210
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate 210 and State Route 210 (California) / History / The 210
caption_attribution_description: English: Interstates in today's terms I-5 I-10 I-110 (original route plus extension back to I-10) I-210 I-405 I-605 (south of I-10)
context_page_description: Route 210, consisting of State Route 210 and Interstate 210, is a state and auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of the U.S. state of California. Designated as the Foothill Freeway for its entire length, it runs from I-5 in the Sylmar district of Los Angeles near the Santa Clarita city limits east to I-10 in Redlands. The western segment from I-5 to SR 57 in Glendora is signed as I-210, while the eastern segment to I-10 in Redlands is signed as SR 210.
  The Foothill Freeway name is a reference to Foothill Boulevard and the San Gabriel Mountains, both of which the freeway runs parallel to for most of its length. The freeway connects Los Angeles with its northern suburbs following the foothills of these mountains. Historically, the Foothill Freeway spanned multiple numerical designations. Additionally, the I-210 designation has changed routings, previously including a portion of what is now the Orange Freeway. East of Pasadena, the Foothill Freeway parallels, and in some parts replaced, the route of former U.S. Route 66.
context_section_description: Construction began on the freeway in 1958. The first section, starting at the eastern end of Foothill Boulevard in what is now La Cañada Flintridge, and going across the Arroyo Seco near Devil's Gate Dam to Canada Avenue in Pasadena, was opened in 1966; it was then signed as SR 118. The section going northwest from Pasadena through La Canada Flintridge to the junction with I-5 in Sylmar was built in several stages between 1971 and 1977. The first section to open was between Ocean View Boulevard and Lowell Avenue in La Crescenta, in July 1972, followed in November by the section between Berkshire Avenue and Ocean View in La Cañada Flintridge.  The section of freeway in Sylmar, California that was intended to open first (between Interstate 5 and Maclay Avenue) was damaged by the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake, and the opening was delayed until repairs could be completed in 1973. In the Pasadena, California section, a bridge span traversing the Arroyo Seco collapsed during construction on October 17, 1972, killing six workers, and as a result, the northbound section through Pasadena was not fully opened until 1974. The last section in the San Fernando Valley to be completed was between Highway 118 in Lake View Terrace, and Lowell Avenue in La Crescenta. While this section was largely completed by 1976, the portion between Sunland Boulevard and Wheatland Avenue (traversing the Tujunga Wash) was not fully completed until 1981. From 1976 to 1980, the uncompleted section of Interstate 210 (notably near the interchange with Highway 118, near the Paxton Street exit) was rented by Columbia Pictures Television for the filming of the television series, CHiPs.
  In 1968, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway depot at Santa Anita, a historic structure built in 1890, was moved to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden to make way for a section of the freeway passing through Arcadia. Construction of the freeway through Pasadena and Arcadia prompted the realignment and relocation of the railroad's mainline to the freeway's median, with the former mainline trackage between Sierra Bonita and Kinneloa avenues in Pasadena becoming an industrial spur accessed via an underpass below the freeway's eastbound lanes. The "Pasadena" section from SR 134 to Rosemead Boulevard was completed in 1976, while the section from Arcadia, California to the Kellogg Interchange with I-10 at Pomona had been previously completed in 1971. The section between the Kellogg Interchange and Glendora is no longer part of I-210. In 2003, this piece was renumbered as part of SR 57, known as the Orange Freeway.
  In the 1990s, Caltrans began constructing extensions to the freeway from Glendora east to the former I-215/SR 30 interchange in San Bernardino. In 2003, a 20-mile (32 km) segment east from Glendora to Fontana was completed, with the portion proceeding south from Glendora renumbered SR 57. The remaining section east of I-15 between Fontana and I-215 was opened on July 24, 2007.
  Caltrans has petitioned the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the trade organization that oversees the designation and naming of the Interstate Highway System, to re-sign the entire Foothill Freeway, including the entire segments of SR 210 and SR 30, as I-210. Upon completion of the new freeway segment west of I-215, SR 30 from I-215 to I-10 in Redlands was re-signed as SR 210. The re-signing in 2003 of the former portion of I-210 now signed as SR 57 truncated I-210 from its parent route, I-10. Presuming that authority is given at some point in the future to re-sign the entirety of Route 210 as an Interstate, I-210 will once again connect to its parent route, but much farther east in Redlands.
  The western freeway segment, planned since the 1970s and completed in 2002, replaced a western surface street segment that began with Base Line Road (sometimes spelled Baseline Road) at its intersection with Foothill Boulevard in La Verne and extended eastward into Upland. In Upland it became 16th Street, then turned northward onto Mountain Avenue, then t
caption: 1955 map of the planned Interstates in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The original proposal for present-day I-210 includes its original eastern terminus in Pomona.
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