Looking toward the current alignment of 99 from the railroad with the original paving north of Famoso
US 99 parallels the Southern Pacific Railroad for a significant portion of its journey across the Great Central Valley. At times, it has to cross those tracks. Many of those crossings were the site of collisions, mostly by people trying to beat the train. They also slowed traffic down quite a bit. In a statewide effort to reduce problems at grade crossings, the State built grade-separations at these locations.
At Famoso, north of Bakersfield, an underpass was built in 1936, which eliminated one of the busier crossing. That structure was eventually replaced by an overpass in 1970. Today, the original crossing partially remains, with paving leading from the freeway to the railroad. The last time a car traversed this paving may well have been over 70 years ago.
Old Sunrise Highway in the fall, west of Wooded Hill.
Sunrise Highway is a very scenic roadway east of San Diego. Shown here is an old alignment of the roadway, bypassed in the late 1950’s. The old alignment was more prone to snow and ice than the current one, hence the relocation from the north slope to the south slope. This photo was taken in November 2009.
A reader, Mike Evans, recently contacted me regarding curb stamps along old US 101 near Middletown in San Diego. He found something which, to be honest, is most surprising. The City of San Diego had the practice of stamping the street name on the curb near intersections. As these intersections get upgraded with ADA compliant ramps, some of these stamps get lost. This one, however, was still there by virtue of a quirk of fate. Along Pacific Highway, between Palm St and Sassafras St, there is a stamp for “Atlantic St”. This stamp is mid-block, which seems odd at first as this isn’t where they are normally stamped. In this case, the stamp was retained but the intersection wasn’t. At some point, a short section of Quince St intersected Pacific Highway. As this only ran a short distance and was cut off by the railroad tracks, it was fairly easy to abandon and vacate. So, after the city did that, the intersection was erased, but the curb with the name remained.
I was surprised the stamp even existed, as I was under the impression that it would have been obliterated when Pacific Highway was widened in the 1940’s. I do wish to thank Mike Evans for finding this as it is a unique part of San Diego history that wasn’t easy to find. All photos are courtesy of Mike Evans. Additional photos show US 101 between Downtown and just north of Old Town.
I went for a ride on my motorcycle today. Just needed to just get out for a bit. Part of my journey took me through Idyllwild, via State 74 and 243. No photos of that section though, as I was too busy having fun on the motorcycle. The “slalom” section, as the locals seem to call it, on 74 heading up to Mountain Center is one of my favorites to ride. 243 was a lot better than on previous rides, owing to a lot less sand on the roadway and new paving from near Lake Fulmor down to Banning. Quite a bit of fun can be had up in the mountains on a motorcycle, even at 55 mph.
It had been a while since I’d gone out that way and needed to check on some things to see if they still remained. I was pleasantly surprised to find the US 60 sign still remaining on I-10 at the split in Beaumont. It is the last one as the rest have long since been replaced. When this one will is still a mystery but I doubt it will last much longer.
Signage at the 10 / 60 split with the US 60 shield partially visible behind the State 60 overlay.
Heading west on I-10, I followed a bit of old US 99 just west of Cherry Valley Blvd near Calimesa, where a section of Roberts Road (original US 99) will be realigned and eventually destroyed, lost to another residential development. Here, there is a beautiful section of 1925 concrete that is still relatively pristine. It was bypassed in 1937 by an new alignment, which is now mostly underneath I-10.
Looking easterly from the end of the paving near I-10. Future “Roberts Road” can be seen in the background on the right-hand side.
1925 date stamp. Happened to be right where I stopped the motorcycle for a photo.
My motorcycle and 99, complete with the 99 license plate.
It was a long ride but a lot of fun. A bit warm in my leathers at times, mostly when stopped at lights. I did find one thing that was a bit surprising in Menifee, after I stopped for fuel. While I commend their efforts, they have incorrectly marked a section of Antelope Road south of Newport Road as “Historic US 395”. It is even painted on the roadway like the US 66 shields in the Mojave Desert. US 395 did pass through here, but along the path of the freeway. The two-lane version of 395 followed the northbound lanes I-215 to about Garbani Rd and then the southbound lanes north of there.
It has taken a while, but I have finally extended my Virtual Tour of US 99, again. This extension adds another 40 miles to the tour, bringing the northern terminus to just south of Tulare, California. A friend of mine helped getting some of the photos as well. In time, I will extend the tour yet further to Fresno, but it will take a while as I am missing photos at this time. If anyone is willing to help, let me know and I can tell you what I will need.
So why not take a tour of one of California’s more historic roadways?
