It's hard to imagine Los Angeles without its freeways; the tendency is to picture them forming whole from the bedrock a couple of geological epochs back. However, they were built during the postwar era just like any other freeways, and road-history buffs provide us with proof in the form of some pretty interesting before/during/after photos. Looking at some of the 50s shots, it's clear there must have been plenty of apocalyptic head-on collisions during the no-center-divider era. [Historic Photos of California Highways]