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Map of Mulholland Drive (orange) and Mulholland Highway (brown) in Los Angeles County.

Mulholland Drive is a road in Los Angeles, California, United States, named after engineer William Mulholland. A portion of it is also called Mulholland Highway.

The mostly two-lane, minor arterial road loosely follows the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills, connecting two sections of U.S. Route 101, and crossing Sepulveda Boulevard, Beverly Glen Boulevard, Coldwater Canyon, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Nichols Canyon and Outpost. It offers views of both the Los Angeles basin and the San Fernando Valley.

The eastern terminus of Mulholland Drive is at its intersection with Cahuenga Boulevard at the Cahuenga Pass over the Santa Monica Mountains (at this point Cahuenga Boulevard runs parallel to the 101). The road continues to the west offering vistas of the Hollywood Sign, downtown Los Angeles and then Burbank, Universal City and the rest of the San Fernando Valley.

A Mulholland Drive street sign in a residential neighborhood in Woodland Hills.

The road winds along the top of the mountains until a few miles west of the 405 Freeway. Just west of the intersection with Encino Hills Drive, it becomes an unpaved road not open to motor vehicles. It is popular with hikers, horseback riders, and mountain bikers, and offers connections to other unpaved fire roads and mountain bike trails as well as a decommissioned Project Nike command post that has been turned into a Cold War memorial park.

The paved road begins again east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, at Santa Maria Rd. Shortly thereafter, Mulholland Drive splits into Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Highway. Mulholland Drive terminates at the 101 where it becomes Valley Circle Boulevard. Mulholland Highway continues to the southwest until it terminates at State Route 1 in Leo Carrillo State Park near the Pacific Ocean and the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

The main portion of the road, from the Cahuenga Pass in Hollywood westward past the Sepulveda Pass was originally called Mulholland Highway and was opened in 1924. It was built by a consortium of Hollywood Hills landowners hoping to make money by bringing development to the Hollywood Hills.

Mulholland Drive is home to some of the most exclusive, expensive homes in the world. Most of these homes are set back from the road and offer outstanding views of downtown Los Angeles. Celebrities such as Jack Nicholson, Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton all live near by.

[edit] Mulholland Drive in popular culture

"Mulholland Drive" is a painting by David Hockney.

Mulholland Drive is a film by David Lynch.

View of Hollywood and Los Angeles from Mulholland Drive.

King of the Mountain was a fictional movie loosely based on actual Mulholland Drive racers, racing to be king of the hill. The 1981 movie include stars, Dennis Hopper, Harry Hamlin, Seymour Cassel and Dan Haggerty. The films Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Falls were named after the road.

The events described in the spoken portions of the Poe song Hey Pretty take place on Mulholland Drive.

Mulholland Drive inspired (and is mentioned in) the R.E.M. song Electrolite.

Mulholland is mentioned, along with other major Los Angeles thoroughfares, in the Tom Petty song Free Fallin'.

There is also a ride at Disneyland's California Adventure called "Mulholland Madness" (previously, "Mulholland Highway").

In the Rockstar North video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in Los Santos, a city modeled after Los Angeles, Mulholland Drive is the main roadway connecting many districts of the city.