{{Short description|Bike path in Southern California}} {{Use American English|date=May 2025}} thumb|right|The California Cycleway, 1900 The '''California Cycleway''', opened in 1900, was an approximately {{convert|1.3|mi|adj=mid|spell=}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=California Cycleway was scuppered by cars (street-cars, that is, not motor-cars) - Roads Were Not Built For Cars |url=https://roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/californiacycleway/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140126212538/https://roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/californiacycleway/ |archive-date=2014-01-26 |access-date=2026-02-13 |website=roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com |language=en-US}}</ref> elevated tollway built specially for bicycle traffic mostly through Pasadena, connecting the Hotel Green in Pasadena with the Raymond Hotel in South Pasadena. The cycleway was intended to connect the cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and Los Angeles along the Arroyo Seco in California, United States along a {{convert|9|mi|adj=mid|spell=in}} route; however, it was never fully completed.

==Construction== The inventor and promoter of the cycleway was Pasadena resident Horace Dobbins, who attracted ex-California governor Henry Harrison Markham to join him in the venture. Together, the two sought approval from the California State Legislature, which was ultimately granted (after a first attempt was vetoed) in 1897. The California Cycleway Company bought a six-mile (10&nbsp;km) right-of-way from downtown Pasadena to Avenue 54 in Highland Park, Los Angeles.<ref>Dan Koeppel, "Cycleway", in: LAttitudes. An Angeleno's Atlas. Ed. Patricia Wakida. Berkeley: Heyday, 2015, pp. 96-105</ref>

The bark Letitia from Puget Sound was the first boat to arrive at San Pedro laden with the first cargo of lumber for the cycleway in late September 1899.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1899-09-23|title=Pasadena Pedalers Waiting for Cycleway Stuff to Come|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18990923.2.167&srpos=106&e=-------en--20--101-byDA-txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> Another cargo of lumber arrived on October 15.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1899-10-17|title=Brevities|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18991017.2.161&srpos=109&e=-------en--20--101-byDA-txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> A third installment of 460,000 feet of lumber arrived at the port in late October.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1899-10-23|title=Brevities|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18991023.2.135&srpos=111&e=-------en--20--101-byDA-txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> The company obtained a vacant lot near the railroad and put in a siding at Glenarm street to store the lumber.<ref name=":0" /> On November 4, a carload of nails arrived at the site for construction of the cycleway.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1899-11-04|title=Brevities|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18991104.2.141&srpos=113&e=-------en--20--101-byDA-txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> By November 7, 1899, a force of 15 men began work, placing the first concrete piers of the cycleway at Glenarm street near Raymond Hill.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1899-11-08|title=Cycleway Progress|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18991108.2.130&srpos=114&e=-------en--20--101-byDA-txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> The 820,000 feet of lumber was unloaded for construction starting in November 8; a steam sawmill was purchased as well and was set up in Glenarm street within following week. A portable derrick helped build the path at a rate of about 300 feet a day.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1899-11-10|title=Cycleway Begun|work=The San Francisco Call|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC18991110.2.110&srpos=13&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> By the end of November, about half a mile of frame was completed.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1899-11-25|title=The Cycleway|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18991125.2.165&srpos=119&e=-------en--20--101-byDA-txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> In early December the whole frame was nearly complete and workers began to lay the floor and on December 9, the railing was being put up.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1899-12-10|title=The Cycleway|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18991210.2.155&srpos=122&e=-------en--20--121-byDA-txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> As construction progressed "little snags (between workers and neighboring property owners) [were] encountered now and then, but they [were] overcome."<ref name=":1" />

The first approximately {{convert|1.3|mi}} of the elevated wooden bikeway, starting at Pasadena's Hotel Green and ending near the site of the first Raymond Hotel, now the area of Raymond Hill, were opened to the public on January 1, 1900, at 8:30 a. m.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1899-12-29|title=Brevities|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18991229.2.179&srpos=126&e=-------en--20--121-byDA-txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> The first patrons to go down the cycleway were reverend Otis Bedell along with a party of 12 other cyclists. The ''Los Angeles Herald'' reported that during the day nearly 1,000 people rode on the path and estimated that 1,500 trips were made without accident or complaint.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1900-01-02|title=Cycleway Opened|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH19000102.2.137&srpos=127&e=-------en--20--121-byDA-txt-txIN-Cycleway-------1|access-date=2021-01-30}}</ref> By October 1900, construction of the Cycleway ceased due to a lack of usage, with Hobbins reporting, "I have concluded that we are a little ahead of time on this cycleway. Wheelmen have not evidenced enough interest in it and so we will lie still for a time and use it for an automobile service. But those vehicles are not yet common or perfect enough to jump into business."<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1900-10-07|title=Southern California by Towns and Counties.: PASADENA; Cycleway Enterprise is Suspended|work=Los Angeles Times|url=https://login.lapl.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/hnplatimes1/newspapers/southern-california-towns-counties/docview/164065997/sem-2?accountid=6749|access-date=2026-02-16}}</ref> The Cycleway closed soon afterwards.

The majority of the completed portion of the route is now Edmondson Alley. A toll booth was located near the north end, in the present Central Park. Had the full route been completed, it would have continued past Highland Park, on through Montecito Heights, crossed the Los Angeles River, passed Elysian Park, and continued to the Plaza in Los Angeles. The full nine-mile run would have had a maximum grade of 3% and an average grade slightly over 1%. At its highest point, the elevation of the roadway was {{convert|50|ft|m}}.

The portion built was constructed almost entirely of Oregon pine and was wide enough for four cyclists to ride abreast, with provision for eventual doubling of the width. It was painted dark green and, at night, brightly lit with incandescent lights. The toll was 10 cents one-way, or 15 cents round trip.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.californiacycleways.org/dobbins.htm|title=Horace Dobbin's Cycleway | work=California Cycleways | accessdate=27 July 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/history.cfm;jsessionid=5ED334963B53169FB9C3E4DA32C0DB43.fhwa?CFID=1176200158&CFTOKEN=3b35e2cab1324f52-3653261A-0089-D8C0-FCE6CD310A40A960 | title=California's Great Cycle-Way | last=Denham | first = T.D. | work=Good Roads Magazine (November, 1901) | access-date=27 July 2010}}</ref>

<gallery caption="The California Cycleway" widths="175px" heights="175px" perrow="5"> File:California Cycleway looking south from Hotel Green 1900.jpg|Looking south from Hotel Green, 1900 File:California Cycleway looking toward Hotel Green 1904 or 1905.jpg|Looking north towards Hotel Green, 1904 File:California Cycleway and Pasadena Grand Opera House 1902.jpg|At the Grand Opera House </gallery>

==Dismantling== Due to the end of the bicycle craze of the 1890s and the existing Pacific Electric Railway lines connecting Pasadena to Los Angeles, the cycleway never made a profit, and never extended beyond the Raymond Hotel into the Arroyo Seco. In the first decade of the 20th century, the structure was dismantled, and the wood sold for lumber,<ref>Ann Scheid, Downtown Pasadena's Early Architecture, Arcadia Publishing, 2006, pp. 78-79</ref><ref name=sopa>Rick Thomas, South Pasadena, Arcadia Publishing, 2007, pp. 60-65</ref> and the Pasadena Rapid Transit Company, a failed venture headed by Dobbins to construct a streetcar line, acquired the right-of-way.<ref>Los Angeles Times, Dash into Pasadena in Twelve Minutes, January 1, 1909, p. II1</ref><ref>Historic American Engineering Record, [http://www.arroyoseco.org/HAERASP.pdf "Arroyo Seco Parkway" (HAER No. CA-265)]</ref> Later, a small portion of the California Cycleway's unbuilt right-of-way in South Pasadena became part of the Arroyo Seco Parkway (Pasadena Freeway).

==See also== *Arroyo Seco Parkway *West Los Angeles Veloway *Santa Monica Cycle Path *San Rafael Hills *List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments on the East and Northeast Sides * {{Portal-inline|Transport}} * {{Portal-inline|Sports}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|California Cycleway}} * [http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/californiacycleway/ Roads Were Not Built For Cars Blog: "California Cycleway was scuppered by cars (street-cars, that is, not motor-cars)"] — ''in depth history''. *[https://highlandpark.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/remembering-the-great-california-cycleway/ Highland Park Blog: "Remembering The Great California Cycleway"] — ''with images''. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080301182311/http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200803/bikeway.asp SierraClub.org: "Bikeway or the Highway"] Robert Gottlieb, ''Sierra Club'', 2008.

Category:Bike paths in California Category:Cycling in Los Angeles Category:History of Pasadena, California Category:South Pasadena, California Category:History of Los Angeles Category:History of Los Angeles County, California Category:Former toll roads in California Category:1900 establishments in California