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27-677: Newhall Pass is a low mountain pass in Los Angeles County, California . Historically called Fremont Pass and San Fernando Pass , with Beale's Cut , it separates the Santa Susana Mountains from the San Gabriel Mountains . Although the pass was visited in August 1769 by Catalan explorer Gaspar de Portolá , it eventually was named for Henry Newhall , a significant businessman in the area during

54-725: A right-of-way to Southern Pacific through what is now Newhall Pass, and he also sold them a portion of the land, upon which the company built a town they named after him: Newhall . The first station built on the line he named for his hometown, Saugus. After his death in 1882 his family incorporated the Newhall Land and Farming Company . Newhall Pass remains a main traffic route, as the Newhall Pass interchange of Interstate 5 ( Golden State Freeway ) and State Route 14 ( Antelope Valley Freeway ), as well as Sierra Highway, Foothill Boulevard , and San Fernando Road travel through

81-420: A favorite of movie producers like John Ford and D. W. Griffith . In Ford's 1923 film Three Jumps Ahead , American cowboy star Tom Mix is filmed jumping over the pass, although it has been widely debated among film historians whether Mix himself made the jump, with any of a number of stuntmen claiming credit for it while some experts believe the jump was achieved purely through special effects. John Ford used

108-564: A low spot between two higher points. In the high mountains, a difference of 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) between the summit and the mountain is defined as a mountain pass. Passes are often found just above the source of a river , constituting a drainage divide . A pass may be very short, consisting of steep slopes to the top of the pass, or a valley many kilometers long, whose highest point might only be identifiable by surveying . Roads and railways have long been built through passes. Some high and rugged passes may have tunnels bored underneath

135-531: A nearby mountainside, as with the Eisenhower Tunnel bypassing Loveland Pass in the Rockies, to allow faster traffic flow throughout the year. The top of a pass is frequently the only flat ground in the area, and may be a high vantage point. In some cases this makes it a preferred site for buildings. If a national border follows the ridge of a mountain range, a pass over the mountains is typically on

162-786: A style of street racing which may take place on these roads. There are thousands of named passes around the world, some of which are well-known, such as the Khyber Pass close to the present-day Afghanistan-Pakistan border on the ancient Silk Road , the Great St. Bernard Pass at 2,473 metres (8,114 ft) in the Alps , the Chang La at 5,360 metres (17,590 ft), the Khardung La at 5,359 metres (17,582 ft) in Ladakh , India and

189-401: A twenty-year contract to maintain the turnpike and collect tolls. Butterfield Overland Mail , a stagecoach that operated mail between St. Louis, Missouri, and San Francisco, began using it directly. In 1861, a landowner and surveyor named Edward Beale was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as the federal Surveyor General of California and Nevada. Beale challenged General Pico's loyalty to

216-888: Is also used, particularly in Europe. In the highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas, passes are denoted by the suffix "La" in Tibetan, Ladhakhi, and several other regional languages. Examples are the Taglang La at 5,328 m (17,480 ft) on the Leh-Manali highway , and the Sia La at 5,589 m (18,337 ft) in the Eastern Karakoram range. Scotland has the Gaelic term bealach (anglicised "balloch"), while Wales has

243-498: Is named after the local businessman Henry Newhall , whose land holdings formed the basis of the city of Santa Clarita . Newhall came to California from Saugus, Massachusetts during the California Gold Rush in 1850. Over time he purchased a number of properties in the state, the most significant being the 46,460-acre (188 km) Rancho San Francisco in northern Los Angeles County. Within this territory, he granted

270-405: Is quite uncommon; when it does occur, it can lead to heavy traffic and accidents. The pass also is susceptible to heavy flooding during La Niña and El Niño events. Wildfires have also occasionally closed down the pass and California State Route 14 . Newhall Pass was initially named 'Fremont Pass' for General John C. Frémont , who was thought to have passed through it in 1847 on his way to sign

297-771: Is the Brenner pass in the Alps . Some mountain passes above the tree line have problems with snow drift in the winter. This might be alleviated by building the road a few meters above the ground, which will make snow blow off the road. There are many words for pass in the English-speaking world. In the United States, pass is very common in the West , the word gap is common in the southern Appalachians , notch in parts of New England , and saddle in northern Idaho . The term col , derived from Old French,

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324-594: The Palakkad Gap at 140 metres (460 ft) in Palakkad , Kerala , India . The roads at Mana Pass at 5,610 metres (18,410 ft) and Marsimik La at 5,582 metres (18,314 ft), on and near the China–India border respectively, appear to be world's two highest motorable passes. Khunjerab Pass between Pakistan and China at 4,693 metres (15,397 ft) is also a high-altitude motorable mountain pass. One of

351-716: The Southern Pacific Transportation Company ) go through the Tejon pass via the San Fernando Tunnel. Mountain pass Mountain passes make use of a gap , saddle , col or notch . A topographic saddle is analogous to the mathematical concept of a saddle surface , with a saddle point marking the minimum high point between two valleys and the lowest point along a ridge. On a topographic map , passes can be identified by contour lines with an hourglass shape, which indicates

378-596: The Treaty of Cahuenga , but he actually went slightly east of the pass on the El Camino Viejo . In 1853, a Los Angeles businessman, Henry Clay Wiley, installed a windlass atop the Fremont Pass to speed and ease the ascent and descent of the steep Santa Clara Divide. He also built a tavern, hotel and stable nearby. In 1854, Wiley sold out to Sanford and Cyrus Lyon and it began to be called Lyons Station . At

405-633: The 19th century. Newhall Pass links the San Fernando Valley to the Santa Clarita Valley and is a main entry to the Greater Los Angeles area . The pass is known for the massive Newhall Pass interchange and the historic San Fernando Tunnel. Weather conditions in the pass can vary from triple-digit heat in the summer to rare below freezing temperatures in winter. Snow is possible from December to February, but

432-458: The border, and there may be a border control or customs station, and possibly a military post. For instance, Argentina and Chile share the world's third-longest international border , 5,300 kilometres (3,300 mi) long, which runs north–south along the Andes mountains and includes 42 mountain passes. On a road over a pass, it is customary to have a small roadside sign giving the name of

459-497: The first bridge under SR 14. It lies between Sierra Highway and the new freeway, about a quarter mile to the northeast of a stone marker. Beale's Cut is difficult to find today because it is fenced off and not close enough to the Sierra Highway to be easily seen. In 1910, the 435 ft (133 m) Newhall Auto Tunnel was built by Los Angeles County a quarter-mile northwest of Beale's Cut. However, two-way traffic through

486-554: The location in at least four films over a twenty-year period beginning as early as 1917. Still in existence today, it is no longer passable by automobiles. It suffered a partial collapse during the Northridge Earthquake, on January 17, 1994, and now is about 30 feet (9.1 m) deep. It is visible from the Sierra Highway about one mile north from the intersection of The Old Road and Sierra Highway, just after

513-547: The new president and in 1863, Beale was awarded the right to collect the toll in the pass. Beale maintained rights to the cut for the next twenty years and so it became known as "Beale's Cut." Beale's Cut was eventually deepened to 90 feet (27.4 m). It lasted as a transportation passage in the neighborhood of present-day Newhall Pass until construction of the Newhall Tunnel was completed in 1910. Beale's Cut appeared in many silent western movies. The location became

540-479: The pass and its elevation above mean sea level . Apart from offering relatively easy travel between valleys, passes also provide a route between two mountain tops with a minimum of descent. As a result, it is common for tracks to meet at a pass; this often makes them convenient routes even when travelling between a summit and the valley floor. Passes traditionally were places for trade routes, communications, cultural exchange, military expeditions etc. A typical example

567-522: The pass. The 6,940-foot-long San Fernando railroad tunnel (2,115.3 m) was begun in March 1875 and took a year and a half to complete. Over 1,500 mostly Chinese laborers took part in its construction, which began at the south end of the mountain. Many of them had prior experience working on Southern Pacific's tunnels in the Tehachapi Pass . Due to the sandstone composition of the mountain that

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594-547: The same time, Phineas Banning obtained the business of supplying Fort Tejon . The steep pass was made easier to cross when a deep slot-like road was cut through the "San Fernando Mountain" by Charles H. Brindley, Andrés Pico , and James R. Vineyard . In return for helping tame the most daunting obstacle along the Fort Tejon Road, the main inland route from Los Angeles to the north, the State of California awarded them

621-485: The shoulders. Track was laid in place during the tunnel dig and was used to remove dirt and rock by horse-pulled cars. The first train passed through the tunnel on August 12, 1876. On September 4 Charles Crocker notified Southern Pacific that the track had been completed on the route between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Metrolink's Antelope Valley Line and the Union Pacific Railroad (formerly

648-696: The similar bwlch (both being insular Celtic languages). In the Lake District of north-west England, the term hause is often used, although the term pass is also common—one distinction is that a pass can refer to a route, as well as the highest part thereof, while a hause is simply that highest part, often flattened somewhat into a high-level plateau. In Japan they are known as tōge , which means "pass" in Japanese. The word can also refer to narrow, winding roads that can be found in and around mountains and geographically similar areas, or specifically to

675-486: The tunnel excavation commenced in June 1875. Water was a constant problem during construction and pumps were utilized to keep the tunnel from flooding. Workers digging from both the north and south ends of the tunnel came face to face on July 14, 1876. The bores from each end were only a half inch out of line with dimensions of 22 feet (6.7 m) high, 16.5 feet (5.0 m) wide at the bottom and over 18 feet (5.5 m) at

702-449: The tunnel was slow because it was only 17.5 ft (5.3 m) wide. The California Division of Highways decided to replace the tunnel. In July 1938, work started to remove the rock above the tunnel to create a four-lane highway. The road was first known as Highway 6, then Highway 14, and finally the present-day Sierra Highway. The cut for the tunnel is located to the west of today's Highway 14, and east of Gates King Open Space. The pass

729-418: Was saturated with water and oil, frequent cave-ins occurred and the bore had to be constantly shored up by timbers during excavation. The initial location for the north end of the tunnel was near Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop , which was abandoned due to frequent cave-ins caused by oil-soaked rock. The north end was moved a little further west towards the present town of Newhall, California . The north end of

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