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Prior to the construction of a new alignment in the 1970s, the portion east of the Hollywood Freeway was known as the Colorado Freeway in reference to nearby Colorado Boulevard, a historic thoroughfare in Pasadena and northeastern Los Angeles.
The freeway begins in Ventura at the junction of U.S. 101--which alternates between a freeway, an expressway, and an ordinary divided highway previous to this point--with the Santa Paula Freeway ( California State Highway 126 ). East of this point, U.S. 101 is known as the Ventura Freeway. It travels eastward through the citrus orchards and strawberry fields of the Oxnard Plain before ascending a short, steep pass into the Conejo Valley. Continuing eastward through the northern Santa Monica Mountains, it crosses the Ventura/Los Angeles county line before entering the San Fernando Valley. The freeway continues eastward along the valley's southern rim, crossing two freeways and the Los Angeles River. After crossing the Verdugo Mountains , it enters Pasadena and terminates at the Foothill FreewayThe Foothill Freeway is the northernmost east-west freeway in the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area. As its name indicates, it runs along the foothills of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges as it passes through the San Fernando, Cr.
The Ventura Freeway suffers from severe congestion. Its intersection with the San Diego FreewayThe San Diego Freeway (colloquially known as "the 405") is one of the principal north-south highways in Southern California. Connecting Los Angeles to San Diego, it is heavily traveled by commuters and freight haulers along its entire length and is known, in Sherman OaksSherman Oaks is a district of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. It is the gateway to "the Valley" and home to the legendary Sherman Oaks Galleria. It was originally subdivided in 1927. Sherman Oaks is primarily a bedroom community, altho, is consistently rated as one of the five most congested interchanges in the nation; the Hollywood Freeway junction is also notably congested. During events at the Rose BowlFor the cricket ground in Southampton, England, see Rose Bowl, Southampton. The Rose Bowl is both the name of an annual American college football game usually played on January 1, and also the name of the stadium in Pasadena, California where the game is, the freeway's eastern portions often resemble a parking lot.
"Ventura Freeway" is the title of a 1971 hit by AmericaAmerica was a light rock band, most popular in the early 1970s and now best known for their #1 hit "A Horse With No Name". Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek and Gerry Beckley, all singers and guitarists, met in high school and formed a folk rock group called "Daze.. The freeway "runnin' through the yard" in Tom PettyThomas Earl Petty (born October 20, 1950 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician. Petty did not have musical aspiritions before Elvis Presley visited his hometown. After working with his early bands Sundowners, Epics, and Mudcrutch (which also in's 1989 hit, "Free Fallin'," is probably the Ventura Freeway.