Mulholland Drive

{{About|the street|the David Lynch film|Mulholland Drive (film)|the Eyedress album|Mulholland Drive (album)}}

{{About|the highway east of Calabasas|the road to its west|Mulholland Highway}}

{{Infobox street

| name = Mulholland Drive

| image = Mulholland Drive.png

| caption = Map of Mulholland Drive (orange) and Mulholland Highway (brown) in Los Angeles County

| image_size = 350

| namesake = William Mulholland

| maint = Bureau of Street Services, City of L.A. DPW

| length_mi = 21

| length_ref =

| established =

| direction_a = West

| terminus_a = {{Jct|state=CA|US|101|name1=Ventura Fwy}} in Woodland Hills

| junction = {{plainlist|

Mulholland Highway
{{jct|state=CA|SR|27|name1=Topanga Canyon Boulevard}}
{{jct|state=CA|I|405|road|Skirball Ctr Dr to Sepulveda Blvd}}
Beverly Glen Blvd
Coldwater Canyon Ave
Laurel Canyon Blvd

}}

| direction_b = East

| terminus_b = {{Jct|state=CA|US|101|name1=Hollywood Fwy}}/Cahuenga Blvd in the Hollywood Hills

}}

File:LA from Mulholland Drive.jpg

Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura counties is named Mulholland Highway. The road is featured in a significant number of films, songs, and novels. David Lynch, who wrote and directed a film named after Mulholland Drive, has said that one can feel "the history of Hollywood" on it. Jack Nicholson has lived on Mulholland Drive for many years, and still did so {{as of|lc=y|2009}}.{{cite book|author=Janelle McCulloch|title=One for the Road|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nud55YDGZ04C&pg=PA68|access-date=9 August 2012|date=1 April 2009|publisher=Pier 9|isbn=978-1-74196-235-2|page=68}}

History

The main portion of the road, from Cahuenga Pass in Hollywood westward past Sepulveda Pass, was originally called Mulholland Highway and was opened in 1924.{{cite web|url=http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=37 |title=Mulholland Scenic Parkway and Corridor|access-date=August 9, 2012 |work=LA Mountains}} It was built by a consortium of developers investing in the Hollywood Hills.{{cite journal|jstor=25147359|title=Mulholland Highway and the Engineering Culture of Los Angeles in the 1920s|author=Matthew W. Roth|journal=Technology and Culture|volume=40|date=July 1999|pages=545–575}} DeWitt Reaburn, the construction engineer responsible for the project, said while it was being built, "The Mulholland Highway is destined to be one of the heaviest traveled and one of the best known scenic roads in the United States."

The street has experienced multiple closures throughout the years due to mudslides and storm damage, with the latest one being in 2024.{{Cite web |title=TRAFFIC CLOSURE ALERT: Mulholland Drive Remains Closed to Traffic between Laurel Canyon Blvd and Coldwater Canyon Drive |url=https://ladot.lacity.gov/dotnews/traffic-closure-alert-mulholland-drive-remains-closed-traffic-between-laurel-canyon-blvd |access-date=2024-03-25 |website=LADOT |language=en}}

{{wide image|San Fernando Valley from Mulholland Dr.JPG|800px|align-cap=center|View at dusk from Mulholland Drive across the southeast San Fernando Valley}}

Geography

File:Mulholland Drive at night.jpg

The {{convert|21|mi|km|adj=on}} long{{cite book|author=E. Rodolphe|title=Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory and Urban Design|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dbv-zU6M9WIC&pg=PA120|access-date=9 August 2012|date=16 December 2003|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-26189-0|page=120}} mostly two-lane, minor arterial road loosely follows the ridgeline of the eastern Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills, connecting two sections of U.S. Route 101, and crossing Sepulveda Boulevard, Beverly Glen Boulevard, Coldwater Canyon Avenue, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Nichols Canyon Road, and Outpost Drive.

The road offers views of the Los Angeles Basin, the San Fernando Valley, Downtown Los Angeles and the Hollywood Sign.{{cite book|author=Michael Eaton|title=Chinatown|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHftl2P5yJ4C&pg=PA27|access-date=9 August 2012|date=1 February 1998|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-85170-532-3|page=27}}

Mulholland Drive has some of the most exclusive and expensive homes in the world, housing mainly Hollywood celebrities.

Route

File:2004-04-02 - 31 - Mulholland Drive.jpg.]]

The eastern terminus of Mulholland Drive is at its intersection with Cahuenga Boulevard at the Cahuenga Pass over the Santa Monica Mountains (at this point Cahuenga Boulevard runs adjacent to Highway 101/The Hollywood Freeway). The road continues to the west, offering vistas of the Hollywood Sign, Downtown Los Angeles, and then Burbank, Universal City, and the rest of the San Fernando Valley with the San Gabriel, Verdugo, and Santa Susana Mountains.

The road winds along the top of the mountains until a few miles west of the San Diego/Interstate 405 Freeway. Just west of the intersection with Encino Hills Drive, it becomes an unpaved road not open to motor vehicles. This part is known by many as "Dirt Mulholland". This portion connects with other unpaved roads and bike trails and allows access to a decommissioned Project Nike command post that is now a Cold War memorial park. (This portion of Mulholland Drive was open to through traffic as late as the 1990s before being permanently closed to motor vehicles so that they would no longer interfere with the natural beauty and wilderness of the area.)

The road opens again east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard (State Route 27) at Santa Maria Road but remains dirt until it reaches Saltillo Street. Shortly thereafter, the thoroughfare splits into Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Highway. Mulholland Drive terminates at U.S. Highway 101 (the Ventura Freeway), where it becomes Valley Circle Boulevard. Mulholland Highway continues to the southwest until it terminates at State Route 1 (PCH) in Leo Carrillo State Park at the Pacific Ocean coast and the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.