Buzz
Highway 101 runs from Los Angeles all the way up the state of California, but there's a noticeable distinction in how residents of L.A. and San Francisco refer to it. Growing up in Southern California, I’d say 'take the 101,' while someone from Oakland, San Jose, or even further north in Oregon or Washington would just say 'take 101.'
This is the only instance where Southern Californians seem especially fond of using their definite articles, unlike people from other regions. What accounts for this difference?
The reason lies in how long freeways have been a feature of the Southern Californian landscape. When the Arroyo Seco Parkway, the first freeway in the West, opened between L.A. and Pasadena in 1940, it marked the beginning of a freeway era. At that time, New York had already established a few highways, but many other places, outside of Los Angeles and New York City, didn’t see highways until the creation of the Interstate Highway system in 1956 under President Eisenhower.
By the time other parts of the country started constructing highways, Los Angeles already boasted several local freeways. These roads were often given names that described their routes, such as 'the San Bernardino Freeway' or 'the Ventura Freeway.' Additionally, some freeways carried multiple route numbers—like the Hollywood Freeway, which was both Route 66 and 101, depending on the section.
In 1964, California simplified its freeway numbering system, assigning a single route number to each highway, but the linguistic pattern had already taken root. Over time, people replaced descriptive names like 'the Harbor Freeway' with route numbers, but it was still 'the 110,' not just 110.
In essence, the use of 'the' is Southern Californians’ way of saying, 'I was driving on highways before they were mainstream.' Being ahead of the trend is at least one perk of enduring all that traffic.
