SIGNS OF THE TIMES # 6: "HIGHWAY 54"

In 1953, a highway known as "Highway 54," was made into a movie starring The Great Profile, Leopoldo Salcedo. The name Highway 54 seems unfamiliar and clueless to most of us Filipinos born in 1960 up.

"Highway 54" (1953)- Stars Leopoldo Salcedo, Paraluman, Ben Perez, Carol Varga, Rolando Liwanag, Rosa Aguirre, Miguel Anzures/ Directed by Ben Calasanz

"Highway 54" is the country’s busiest artery of commerce and transportation. Stretching some 54 kilometers, it serves as a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Filipinos passing or doing business in Metro Manila.

The highway was constructed in 1940 by engineers led by Florencio Moreno and Osmundo L. Monsod. It was first named as North and South Circumferential Road. But at the end of World War II, the American occupiers changed the name to Highway 54.

It forms a major part of the circumferential roads in Metro Manila. From the south, it passes through five cities--- Pasay, Makati, Mandaluyong, Quezon City, and Caloocan. Its southern endpoint is at the rotunda near the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City while its northern point is at Monumento in Caloocan City near the Andres Bonifacio monument.

In 1959, by virtue of Republic Act 2140, the highway was renamed in honor of Epifanio de los Santos, a famous son of the province of Rizal.

The highway is now merely known as EDSA.