main road 101 stretch from Los Angeles all the room upCalifornia , but there ’s a noted divergence between how a resident physician of L.A. bear on to it and how a resident of San Francisco refers to it . Thanks to my Southern California breeding , I look up to “ takingthe101 , ” while a denizen of Oakland or San Jose , or someone further up the seacoast in Oregon or Washington , would plausibly instruct a traveler to simply “ take 101 . ”
This is the only clock time Southern Californians get in particular attached to their definite articles compared to natives of other region . Why the difference ?
It all has to do with how recollective freeways have been a part of the Southern Californian landscape painting . When the Arroyo Seco Parkway unfold between L.A. and Pasadena in 1940 , it was the first freeway in the West ( New York already had a few ) . But remote ofLos Angelesand New York City , many stead did n’t get highways until Eisenhower launched the Interstate Highway system in 1956 .
By the fourth dimension the rest of the body politic set forth building highways , L.A. already had several local freeways . They all had local name that delineate their route , like “ the San Bernadino Freeway ” or “ the Ventura Freeway . ” Besides , certain freeways encompassed multiple route numbers — the Hollywood Freeway was both Route 66 and 101 , depend on where you were along it .
In 1964 , California simplified its numbering system of rules so the main road only had one route number each , but the linguistic pattern was already fix . Eventually , people began to replace the descriptive name like the Harbor Freeway with route numbers , but it was stillthe110 , not 110 .
Essentially , “ the ” is just Southern Californians ’ enounce “ I drove along highways before it was cool . ” Hipness is at least one bright side of dealing withall that traffic .
[ h / t : KCET ]
