- The Ridge Route was a 20-foot-wide road opened in 1915 and the first direct route between LA and Bakersfield. To learn its history, Huell takes a trip with a Model T Ford club along a 30-mile portion of the abandoned road north of Castaic.
- Completed in 1915, the Ridge Route was carved from the Sierra Pelona Mountains by workers using mule-drawn dirt scrapers. From ridge top to ridge top, they cleared a 20 foot-wide roadway which was the first direct route between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, uniting northern and southern California. The road fell into disuse when the straighter and safer U.S. Highway 99 opened in 1933, which itself was supplanted when Interstate 5 was completed in 1970. Today, a 30-mile portion of the abandoned Ridge Route can be found hidden in the mountains between Castaic and Gorman just east of I-5. Huell is joined by Harrison Scott, a retired Pacific Bell engineer, who, with the help of U.S. Forest Service archaeologists, was largely responsible for landing at 17.6-mile stretch of this engineering marvel on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. With help from members of the Model T Ford Club of Kern County and their classic cars, they re-create a road trip from a bygone era along the Ridge Route, complete with stops at the remnants of the inns, cafes, and service stations that once dotted its many twists and curves.
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