MULHOLLAND DRIVE

Description

Essentials about Mulholland Drive in brief

If you want to enjoy a great view of the gigantic Los Angeles metropolitan area to the south and the San Fernando Valley to the north, while also seeing some of the city’s largest and most beautiful mansions, you should definitely drive along Mulholland Drive. The 34-kilometer scenic road winds through the eastern Santa Monica Mountains, offering some of the most beautiful panoramas in the greater LA area. If you like to drive and take some snapshots along the way, you definitely shouldn’t skip this road.

The course of Mulholland Drive

The road, which has two lanes throughout, essentially follows the ridge of the Santa Monica Mountains and is of rather little significance today in terms of traffic due to its intersecting and winding course. It rather serves the development of the luxurious residential areas along the Santa Monica Mountains and the leisure traffic.

Mulholland Drive begins in the east at U.S. Highway 101 in the Hollywood Hills, and its first section offers spectacular views of Los Angeles. Some of Southern California’s most valuable mansions are located here, as many celebrities from film and television call this area home. The road runs through the hills past sparsely developed residential areas and several public parks, then crosses Interstate 405 at Sepulveda Pass and continues west in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to San Vincence Mountain Park. There, an unpaved hiking and mountain biking trail, closed to motorized traffic, now follows the original course of the road to access the popular recreation area. West of the park, Mulholland Drive becomes a road again and ends back at Highway 101 near Calabasas.

Just before the western end of Mulholland Drive, Mulholland Highway branches off, also a two-lane road through the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in the central Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, ending a few miles west of Malibu at the California State Route 1 coastal highway.

The history of Mulholland Drive

The largest section of the current road was opened to traffic in 1924. The construction of Mulholland Drive was a land development project intended to guarantee residents a higher quality of life and fresher air, as well as a great view all the way to the Pacific coast. Mulholland Drive is named after the engineer William Mulholland, who organized the drinking water supply of Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century and thus enabled the rise of the city.