this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
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HistoryPhotos

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HistoryPhotos is for photographs (or, if it can be found, film) of the past, recent or distant! Give us a little snapshot of history!

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[–] stickly@lemmy.world 48 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I never heard of a submarine on the 101 so this must work pretty well

[–] Janx@piefed.social 9 points 5 days ago
[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 25 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I'd have nightmares of one of them coming loose, ngl

[–] Trex202@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Gnugit@aussie.zone 7 points 5 days ago

That's the nightmare..

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 points 4 days ago

So would Worf.

[–] grumpo_potamus@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Exactly my first thought looking at this picture. What a horrible way to go

[–] toynbee@piefed.social 1 points 5 days ago

Yeah, it reminds me of that one post10 video in which he crawled under a giant stack of logs. He made it out okay but it had me tense the whole time.

[–] hobovision@mander.xyz 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)
  1. He's not walking on a highway, these are next to a highway. He's walking on a dirt path.
  2. These are located along the Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1 not US-101) in Seal Beach, CA between Long Beach and Huntington Beach. The route of the PCH shares some portions with 101 now, but at this location they were miles apart. 101 at the time followed approximately where I-5 is now, up near Anaheim instead of down near the coast.
  3. Here's some context for where these were: https://sbfoundersday.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/where-the-buoys-are/
[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 6 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Which part of the 101 was this? Very curious whether this was in Los Angeles.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I found this :

SPHERES OF WAR-IN STACKS

PILED up like a show exhibit of gigantic oranges,

hollow iron floats are stacked beside US Highway

101 at Seal Beach, California. In World War II they

were used to suspend anti-submarine nets to protect

US ports. At war’s end the navy hauled them out

of the water, stored them against future contingencies.

Each weighing 680 lb and 5ft in diameter, they stand

in three tidy 45ft mountains, each of 8415 grey floats.

So Seal Beach, assuming this source has it right https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-484219677

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The 101 in Seal Beach? It doesn’t lead there (at least today), hmm…

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It didn't look to me like the 101 in SoCal in the first place and I'm old enough to remember it in the 60s. But I don't know Seal Beach.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Okay now I found this: https://sbfoundersday.wordpress.com/2019/03/07/tdisbh066/

And it looks like there's another shot of the same stacks. So it's NOT the 101, it's PCH. Which makes it Highway 1, right? Isn't Los Alamitos thereish?

[–] WalleyeWarrior@midwest.social 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Keep in mind that the photo pre-dates the US interstate system, so there was a lot of highway shuffling in the 60s

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yes I looked at a 1955 map of Seal Beach, where it's labeled as The Pacific Coast Highway with no number given. But it's CA-1, not Interstate 1, that's on the East Coast. The 1 and the 101 do run together in several places, let me go to Wikipedia for some history.

Okay! Here's a relevant paragraph after a whole section about building and renaming parts of what's now CA-1:

"The state Legislature in 1963 tossed out the old conflicting Legislative Route Numbers (1964 renumbering), got rid of some famous old U.S. routes, and renumbered many state highways. It abolished US 101A in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties and renumbered it as SR 1. The Rockport to Leggett connection then became State Route 208.[51] The cover of California Highways magazine for in early 1964 shows state engineers posting the new shield at Point Mugu.[52] The same year, the Legislature by state law named SR 1 "Pacific Coast Highway" in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties, "Cabrillo Highway" from Santa Barbara north to San Francisco, and "Shoreline Highway" from Marin County to its northern terminus. Many cities, however, did not change the name of city streets that are part of SR 1, such as Lincoln and Sepulveda boulevards in Los Angeles, Santa Monica and El Segundo; and Junipero Serra and Park Presidio boulevards in San Francisco. Several other cities and communities like Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Bodega Bay merely named their respective city streets as "Coast Highway".

So back in 1953, PCH down in Seal Beach might have been part of old 101-A!

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 points 4 days ago

Nice sleuthing.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Might be Camarillo for anti-submarine netting around Port Hueneme.

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 3 points 5 days ago

Good point. I definitely need to dig deeper when I have time.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You know 101 stretches up to Canada....

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

It ends in Washington state. The post is referring specifically to US highway 101 so your bitchy ellipses is unnecessary.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah, it stretches up to Canada. Which means that it ends in Washington