 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Olympic Boulevard" Los Angeles – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Olympic Boulevard, formerly10th Street, is a majorarterial road inLos Angeles County, California. It stretches from Ocean Avenue at the western end ofSanta Monica toEast Los Angeles. It runs north ofPico Boulevard and south ofWilshire andSanta Monica boulevards from Santa Monica todowntown Los Angeles.
Like other major Los Angeles streets, Olympic is at least four lanes in width. Unlike other east-west arterial roads such asWilshire Boulevard,Santa Monica Boulevard, andSunset Boulevard, it does not cross major attractions and sites and therefore contains far less traffic. While Wilshire crosses through the heart of Los Angeles, Olympic runs through the southern end of principal areas such asWest Los Angeles,Westwood,Century City,Beverly Hills,Hancock Park,Koreatown,Westlake andDowntown Los Angeles.Little Ethiopia is east ofFairfax Avenue and Olympic. Proceeding east on Olympic, it breaks off in Downtown LA's Fashion District but continues on from there, passing the southern areas ofBoyle Heights,East Los Angeles,Commerce, andMontebello with an eastern terminus inPico Rivera as a small neighborhood street.
Olympic Boulevard is primarily a commercial, urban street. There is a grass divider with trees in the Santa Monica portion. AroundCarthay, Olympic passes through residential neighborhoods. A number of schools are located on Olympic as well.Crossroads School is located at Olympic and 20th in Santa Monica,New Roads Middle School is located at the Franklin/Berkeley St. area in Santa Monica. andWildwood School is located in between Bundy and Barrington.Los Angeles High School is located slightly to the east of Olympic andHighland Avenue.
Olympic expands to six lanes starting east of Santa Monica and generally maintains a speed limit of 45 miles per hour (72 km/h). Even so, due to Los Angeles traffic, Olympic often becomes congested.
It was originally named 10th Street, but was renamed Olympic Boulevard for the1932 Summer Olympics, as that was the occasion of the tenth modern event. Tenth Street School, at Olympic and Grattan, was founded in 1888 and has kept the original name. Parts of the old 10th Street exist as smaller streets near Hancock Park, in Westlake, and in the Central City East area southeast of Downtown.
Bus service throughout Olympic Boulevard is served between Santa Monica and Century City bySanta Monica Transit line 5, between Century City and Downtown LA byMetro Local line 28, and from The Fashion District east by Metro Local lines 62 and 66.[1]
There are two rail stations on theMetro E Line that stop on or near Olympic Boulevard:one on 26th Street in Santa Monica outside theBergamot Station andanother slightly south of Olympic Boulevard atBundy Drive.
34°02′42″N118°15′54″W / 34.0451°N 118.2650°W /34.0451; -118.2650