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.
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.
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.
In 1958, when the East Los Angeles Interchange started to be built, the routes that were planned to go through it were a little different that what is there today. I-10 was originally to be State 26 and I-5 was a part of US 99. US 101 remained the same. State 60 was to be State 26. The routing of the interstates through cities wasn’t quite settled yet and many of the roads were planned to be State or US routes.
After the signs were installed, some of them were temporarily overlaid until the Pomona Freeway connections were completed. A portion of the original route planned for that freeway, State 26, was visible. While some have speculated it was actually US 60 underneath there, reverting to State 60 after the 1964 route renumbering, these plans show otherwise. How far east the State Route 26 signage would have gone does remain unknown. It is likely it would have gone at least as far as the 57, if not all the way to the 71, as US 60 was effectively terminated at the present junction of I-10 and State 71 about 1960.
For additional photos and information about the interchange, head on over to the East Los Angeles Interchange page.
The first section of the San Diego Freeway in San Diego (US 101 at the time) to be constructed was the Mission Bay Bypass in 1954. Elements of this construction can still be seen today, such as some older curbing at the intersection of Damon Ave and Santa Fe St. North and south of this small section of freeway, it was still a narrower four-lane roadway with some expressway sections. Between 1966 (north) and 1969 (south), the adjacent sections were constructed, completing I-5 in the City of San Diego.
