Jul 7, 2009 7:26 pm US/Pacific
Campaign Launched To Rename San Jose Interchange
SAN JOSE (CBS 5) ―
-
-
In 1976 San Jose City Councilman Joe Colla posed with a Chevy on top of an interchange that was incomplete due to a budget crisis.
CBS
Thousands of cars each day use the interchange that connects Highway 101 with Interstates 280 and 680 in San Jose. It's a sky-high collection of flyover ramps that make up the busiest intersection in the South Bay.
But through most of the 1970s it was unfinished and ugly, abandoned by the state. In 1973, San Jose's own Doobie Brothers used it for an album cover, and it took on pop art status as an icon of governmental inaction.
That began to change in 1976 when then City Councilman Joe Colla pulled off a stunt that became a true urban legend. He hoisted a car to the top of the incomplete ramp to symbolize the folly of it all.
In the predawn hours of January 4th, Colla hired a crane to lift a Chevy 90 feet to the top of the unfinished section. He then had a helicopter drop him on top to take a picture, which was flashed around the country and brought attention to California's budget problems and unfinished freeways.
No one knew it at the time, but the stunt terrified Colla.
"My Dad was afraid of heights, and it was very hard for him to get up there," Colla's daughter Colette Blakely said in a phone interview to CBS 5. "I remember my Dad was upset because the freeway, they had stopped working on it, it wasn't getting finished. So a group of concerned citizens got together and came up with this idea."
Colla later led a caravan from San Jose to Sacramento to push for the needed funds, which were finally approved. The interchange was finished in 1982.
33 years later, an effort has been launched for the state to name the interchange after Colla is getting support. Colla died in 1995 at the age of 75. Gary Richards, who writes the Roadshow column for the Mercury News is one of the supporters.
"He helped get this built, moved from inaction to action and it's part of our South Bay history. And I think it's a great way to honor him," Richards said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments