In the 1950's and early 1960's, it usually took us around an hour to get to the beach from our home in Whittier. We usually went to Huntington Beach.
The route took you past bean fields, and if you took Goldenwest Ave. through Westminster and Huntington Beach, it would take you past dozens of dairy farms. These were all gone by the mid-1960's.
By 1966, the San Gabriel River Freeway opened, giving us fast access to the beach. Nowadays, it's usually choked with traffic.
That freeway took only two years to build. Today, it takes 20 years just to widen an existing freeeway.
Early 60’s, finishing college, working part time for the LA flood control agency in their labs and would go anywhere in the county for water samples. Was given copies of the master keys that opened the pole gates to the flood control channels.
It only took about 25 minutes from Glendale to Long Beach via the concrete lined LA river.