Editing Tejon Pass (section)

===20th century===
[[File:Tejon pass summit2015.jpg|thumb|right|The exit to Fort Tejon, on the northward slope of the Tejon Pass just before descending into the Central Valley]]
The [[Ridge Route]] was the first automobile highway linking the [[Central Valley (California)|Central Valley]] with the [[Los Angeles Basin]]. It was laid in a sinuous fashion through the ridges and gullies of the [[Sierra Pelona Mountains]] to the Tejon Pass around 1910. The northern portion of this highway, which became a part of [[U.S. Route 99 (California)|U.S. Route 99]], was known as "[[Grapevine, California|The Grapevine]]." The Ridge Route was replaced by a three-lane alternate highway in 1933, a four-lane expressway in 1947, and later by the eight-lane Interstate 5 Freeway in 1970.<ref>[http://www.californiahistorian.com/articles/ridge-route.html ''The Ridge Route: the Long Road to Preservation''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211222737/http://www.californiahistorian.com/articles/ridge-route.html |date=2012-02-11 }}; Scott, Harrison Irving; "The California Historian," www.californiahistorian.com website, accessed November 14, 2011; Quote: "There have been three Ridge Route highways. The 1915 highway...; the 1933 three-lane Ridge Alternate Highway identified as Highway 99 (in 1947 converted to a 4-lane expressway); and today's 8-lane I-5 freeway completed in 1970."</ref>

[[File:Dead-Man's Curve in Lebec, California, 2010.jpg|thumb|right|A section of the 1915 Ridge Route in [[Lebec, California]], known as "deadman's curve," was abandoned when the highway was improved over the Tejon Pass.<ref name=DeadmansCurve/>]]
A section of the highway known as "Dead Man's Curve," was the "scene of many accidents on the narrow old road,"<ref name=DeadmansCurve/> and in July 1932 it took the life of Jack Klieby, 33, who deliberately drove his truck, transporting gasoline, off the roadway to avoid hitting oncoming automobiles. He died when the truck burst into flames.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/106452162/?terms=Deadman%27s%2Bcurve%2Btejon |title="Crash, Fire Kill Heroic Truck Driver," ''Oakland Tribune,'' July 13, 1932, image 24 |access-date=November 6, 2019 |archive-date=September 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928073852/https://www.newspapers.com/image/106452162/?terms=Deadman%27s%2Bcurve%2Btejon |url-status=live }}</ref>

The curve ''(in adjoining photo)'' was eliminated in 1935 with improvements completed from Fort Tejon to Grapevine station. That work "supersedes the worst portions of the old twenty-foot Grapevine Canyon Highway, shortens the length of the road by approximately eight-tenths of a mile and eliminates 2,937 degrees of curvature or the equivalent of eight complete circles," according to R.M. Gillis of Fresno, District 6 highways engineer.<ref name=DeadmansCurve>{{Cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/25843614/?terms=Deadman%27s%2Bcurve%2Btejon |title="Deadman's Curve on Ridge Route Now Eliminated," ''The Fresno Bee,'' September 11, 1935, image 10 |access-date=November 6, 2019 |archive-date=September 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928072410/https://www.newspapers.com/image/25843614/?terms=Deadman%27s%2Bcurve%2Btejon |url-status=live }}</ref>