The Ridge Route was the first automobile highway linking the 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, was known as "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.

A section of the highway known as "Dead Man's Curve," was the "scene of many accidents on the narrow old road," 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.

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.
The Ridge Route was the first automobile highway linking the 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, was known as "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.
A section of the highway known as "Dead Man's Curve," was the "scene of many accidents on the narrow old road," 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.
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.
Tejon Pass