A security guard walking down US Highway 101 where there are towering stacks of hollow iron floats from which the iron antisubmarine nets were suspended to protect the US ports during WWII
He's not walking on a highway, these are next to a highway. He's walking on a dirt path.
These are located along the Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1 not US-101) in Seal Beach, CA between Long Beach and Huntington Beach. The route of the PCH shares some portions with 101 now, but at this location they were miles apart. 101 at the time followed approximately where I-5 is now, up near Anaheim instead of down near the coast.
And it looks like there's another shot of the same stacks. So it's NOT the 101, it's PCH. Which makes it Highway 1, right? Isn't Los Alamitos thereish?
Yes I looked at a 1955 map of Seal Beach, where it's labeled as The Pacific Coast Highway with no number given. But it's CA-1, not Interstate 1, that's on the East Coast. The 1 and the 101 do run together in several places, let me go to Wikipedia for some history.
Okay!
Here's a relevant paragraph after a whole section about building and renaming parts of what's now CA-1:
"The state Legislature in 1963 tossed out the old conflicting Legislative Route Numbers (1964 renumbering), got rid of some famous old U.S. routes, and renumbered many state highways. It abolished US 101A in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties and renumbered it as SR 1. The Rockport to Leggett connection then became State Route 208.[51] The cover of California Highways magazine for in early 1964 shows state engineers posting the new shield at Point Mugu.[52] The same year, the Legislature by state law named SR 1 "Pacific Coast Highway" in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties, "Cabrillo Highway" from Santa Barbara north to San Francisco, and "Shoreline Highway" from Marin County to its northern terminus. Many cities, however, did not change the name of city streets that are part of SR 1, such as Lincoln and Sepulveda boulevards in Los Angeles, Santa Monica and El Segundo; and Junipero Serra and Park Presidio boulevards in San Francisco. Several other cities and communities like Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Bodega Bay merely named their respective city streets as "Coast Highway".
So back in 1953, PCH down in Seal Beach might have been part of old 101-A!
I never heard of a submarine on the 101 so this must work pretty well
Daaad!
I'd have nightmares of one of them coming loose, ngl
It would be more than one
That's the nightmare..
Exactly my first thought looking at this picture. What a horrible way to go
Yeah, it reminds me of that one post10 video in which he crawled under a giant stack of logs. He made it out okay but it had me tense the whole time.
So would Worf.
Which part of the 101 was this? Very curious whether this was in Los Angeles.
I found this :
SPHERES OF WAR-IN STACKS
PILED up like a show exhibit of gigantic oranges,
hollow iron floats are stacked beside US Highway
101 at Seal Beach, California. In World War II they
were used to suspend anti-submarine nets to protect
US ports. At war’s end the navy hauled them out
of the water, stored them against future contingencies.
Each weighing 680 lb and 5ft in diameter, they stand
in three tidy 45ft mountains, each of 8415 grey floats.
So Seal Beach, assuming this source has it right https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-484219677
The 101 in Seal Beach? It doesn’t lead there (at least today), hmm…
It didn't look to me like the 101 in SoCal in the first place and I'm old enough to remember it in the 60s. But I don't know Seal Beach.
Okay now I found this: https://sbfoundersday.wordpress.com/2019/03/07/tdisbh066/
And it looks like there's another shot of the same stacks. So it's NOT the 101, it's PCH. Which makes it Highway 1, right? Isn't Los Alamitos thereish?
Keep in mind that the photo pre-dates the US interstate system, so there was a lot of highway shuffling in the 60s
Yes I looked at a 1955 map of Seal Beach, where it's labeled as The Pacific Coast Highway with no number given. But it's CA-1, not Interstate 1, that's on the East Coast. The 1 and the 101 do run together in several places, let me go to Wikipedia for some history.
Okay! Here's a relevant paragraph after a whole section about building and renaming parts of what's now CA-1:
"The state Legislature in 1963 tossed out the old conflicting Legislative Route Numbers (1964 renumbering), got rid of some famous old U.S. routes, and renumbered many state highways. It abolished US 101A in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties and renumbered it as SR 1. The Rockport to Leggett connection then became State Route 208.[51] The cover of California Highways magazine for in early 1964 shows state engineers posting the new shield at Point Mugu.[52] The same year, the Legislature by state law named SR 1 "Pacific Coast Highway" in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties, "Cabrillo Highway" from Santa Barbara north to San Francisco, and "Shoreline Highway" from Marin County to its northern terminus. Many cities, however, did not change the name of city streets that are part of SR 1, such as Lincoln and Sepulveda boulevards in Los Angeles, Santa Monica and El Segundo; and Junipero Serra and Park Presidio boulevards in San Francisco. Several other cities and communities like Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Bodega Bay merely named their respective city streets as "Coast Highway".
So back in 1953, PCH down in Seal Beach might have been part of old 101-A!
Nice sleuthing.
Might be Camarillo for anti-submarine netting around Port Hueneme.
Good point. I definitely need to dig deeper when I have time.
You know 101 stretches up to Canada....
It ends in Washington state. The post is referring specifically to US highway 101 so your bitchy ellipses is unnecessary.
Yeah, it stretches up to Canada. Which means that it ends in Washington
This is wild, I had never previously heard about submarine net defenses before this post.