History of California's state highway system

The state highway system in the U.S. state of California dates back to 1896, when the state took over maintenance of the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road. Construction of a large connected system began in 1912, after the state's voters approved an $18 million bond issue for over 3000 miles (4900 km) of highways. The last large addition was made by the California State Assembly in 1959, after which only minor changes have been made.

1895 to 1919

The first state road was authorized on March 26 , 1895, when a law created the post of "Lake Tahoe Wagon Road Commissioner" to maintain the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road (the 1852 Johnson's Cut-off of the California Trail), now US 50 from Smith Flat - 3 miles (5 km) east of Placerville - to the Nevada state line."An act to authorize the state of California to secure the title to and right of way for that certain wagon-road...commencing a short distance easterly from the village of Smith's Flat...and running thence to Lake Tahoe...", approved March 26, 1895, chapter 128, p. 119] The 58 mile [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=uzoIUIQbCdgC&pg=RA11-PA25-IA4#PRA11-PA25-IA4,M1 Report of the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road Commissioner] , November 29, 1898] (93 km) road had been operated as a toll road until 1886, when El Dorado County bought it; the county deeded the road to the state on February 28, 1896.California Highways and Public Works, Centennial Edition, September 9, 1950] Funding was only enough for minimal improvements, including a stone bridge over the South Fork American River in 1901. [Department of Engineering (1917), p. 181]

Also in 1895, on March 27, the legislature created the three-person Bureau of Highways to coordinate efforts by the counties to build good roads. The bureau traveled to every county of the state in 1895 and 1896 and prepared a map of a recommended system of state roads, which they submitted to the governor on November 25, 1896. [Blow, pp. 12-15] The legislature replaced the Bureau of Highways with the Department of Highways on April 1, 1897, [Blow, p. 18] three days after it passed a law creating a second state highway from Sacramento to Folsom - another part of what became US 50 - to be maintained by three "Folsom Highway Commissioners". "An act to provide for the construction of a state highway or wagon road from Sacramento City to Folsom...", approved March 29, 1897, chapter 176, p. 239] This was the last highway maintained by a separate authority, as the next state road, the Mono Lake Basin State Road (now part of SR 120), was designated by the legislature in 1899 to be built and maintained by the Department of Highways."An act to provide for the construction of a free wagon road from the Mono lake basin to connect with a road called 'Tioga road,' at or near the 'Tioga mine,' and making an appropriation therefor.", approved February 23, 1899, chapter 26, p. 26]

Several more state highways were legislated in the next decade, and the legislature passed a law creating the Department of Engineering on March 11, 1907. This new department, in addition to non-highway duties, was to maintain all state highways, including the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road."An act to create for the State of California a department of engineering...", approved March 11, 1907, chapter 183, p. 215] On March 22, 1909 the "State Highways Act" was passed, taking effect on December 31, 1910 after a successful vote by the people of the state in November. This law authorized the Department of Engineering to issue $18 million in bonds for a "continuous and connected state highway system" that would connect all county seats."An act authorizing the construction, acquisition, maintenance and control of a system of state highways in the State of California...", approved March 22, 1909, chapter 383, p. 647] To this end, the department created the three-member California Highway Commission on August 8, 1911 to take full charge of the construction and maintenance of this system. As with the 1896 plan by the Bureau of Highways, the Highway Commission traveled the state to determine the best routes, [Blow, pp. 27-34] which ended up stretching about 3100 miles (5000 km). [Howe & Peters, p. 12] Construction began in mid-1912, [Automobile Clubs, p. 16] with groundbreaking on Contract One - now part of SR 82 in San Mateo County - on August 7. [Blow, p. 2] Noteworthy portions of the system built by the commission included the Ridge Route in southern California and the Yolo Causeway west from Sacramento. [Department of Engineering (1917), p. 198]

Because the first bond issue did not provide enough funding, the "State Highways Act of 1915" was approved by the legislature on May 20, 1915 and the voters in November 1916, taking effect on December 31. This gave the Department of Engineering an additional $12 million to complete the original system and $3 million for a further approximately 680 miles (1100 km) specified by the law. At this time, each route was assigned a number from 1 to 34; [Howe & Peters, pp. 11-14] this system of labeling routes, although never marked with signs, remained until the 1964 renumbering. In 1917, the legislature gave the California Highway Commission statutory recognition, and turned over the approximately 750 miles [Home & Peters, p. 18] (1200 km) of roads adopted by legislative act, until then maintained by the State Engineer, to the commission. [Automobile Clubs, p. 16] Where not serving as extensions of existing routes, these - and routes subsequently added legislatively in 1917 and 1919 - were given numbers from 35 to 45. A third bond issue was approved by the voters at a special election on July 1, 1919, and provided $20 million more for the existing routes and the same amount for new extensions totaling about 1800 miles (2900 km), adding Routes 46 to 64 to the system. [Howe & Peters, pp. 12-14] The three bond issues together totaled 5560 miles (8948 km), of which just over 40% (60% if the 1919 bond issue is left out) was completed or under construction in mid-1920. [How & Peters, p. 17]

1920 to 1958

The Department of Engineering became part of the new Department of Public Works in 1921, and the California Highway Commission was entirely separated as its own department in 1923.California Department of Transportation, [http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/paffairs/about/cthist.htm Fact Sheet: Important Events in Caltrans History] ] In order to pay for the roads, a 2-cent per gallon gasoline tax was approved in 1923. The legislature continued to add highways to the system, including the Mother Lode Highway (now part of SR 49) in 1921"An act declaring the public highway extending from Auburn in Placer County to the Sonora Lateral at Sonora in Tuolumne county to be a state highway.", approved June 3, 1921, chapter 839, p. 1608] and the Arrowhead Trail (now I-15 north of Barstow) in 1925."An act authorizing and directing the California highway commission to acquire necessary rights of way, and to construct and maintain a highway, which is hereby declared to be a state highway, extending from Barstow...to a point...on the boundary line between the state of California and the state of Nevada...which said highway is commonly known and referred to as the Arrowhead trail.", approved May 23, 1925, chapter 369, p. 670] In January 1928, the California State Automobile Association and Automobile Club of Southern California, which had already been placing guide and warning signs along state highways, marked the U.S. Highways along several of the most major state highways. [ [http://gbcnet.com/ushighways/history/1964_route_renumbering.pdf Route Renumbering] , California Highways and Public Works, March-April 1964, p. 11] The California Toll Bridge Authority was created in 1929 to acquire and operate all toll bridges on state highways, including the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and Carquinez Bridge.

After 1927 and 1929, in which no highways were added to the system, the legislature authorized the construction of 23 new routes in 1931,"An act establishing certain additional state highways and classifying them as secondary highways", approved April 1, 1931, chapter 82, p. 102, in effect August 14, 1931] which were numbered from 72 to 80 when not forming extensions of existing routes. Two years later, another 213 sections of highway were added, [1933, chapter 767, p. 2034 ] almost doubling the total length of state highways to about 14000 miles (23000 km); [Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Highways, Streets and Bridges, California's Highway Problem, 1947, OCLC 4650558, p. 29] the last-assigned route number jumped from 80 to 202. Many of these new routes, as well as a number of existing routes, were incorporated into the initial system of state sign routes in 1934, also posted by the auto clubs. [ [http://www.gbcnet.com/roads/ca_routes_1934.html State Routes will be Numbered and Marked with Distinctive Bear Signs] , California Highways and Public Works, August 1934]

The Division of Highways took over signage on state highways from the auto clubs in 1947, though at least the Auto Club of Southern California continued to place signs on city streets until 1956. [Richard R. Mathison, Three Cars in Every Garage: A Motorist's History of the Automobile and the Automobile Club in Southern California, , 1968, OCLC 435368, p. 240]

List of route numbers, 1917-1931

References

*Department of Engineering, [http://books.google.com/books?id=Kc83AAAAIAAJ Fifth Biennial Report of the Department of Engineering of the State of California, December 1, 1914, to November 30, 1916] , 1917
*Ben Blow, California Highways: A Descriptive Record of Road Development by the State and by Such Counties as Have Paved Highways, 1920 ( [http://www.archive.org/details/californiahighwa00blowrich Archive.org] or [http://books.google.com/books?id=osgNAAAAYAAJ Google Books] )
*Howe & Peters, [http://books.google.com/books?id=G0w7AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA3#PRA1-PA3,M1 Engineers' Report to California State Automobile Association Covering the Work of the California Highway Commission for the Period 1911-1920]
*Automobile Club of Southern California and California State Automobile Association, [http://books.google.com/books?id=G0w7AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA3#PPR1,M1 The State Highways of California: An Engineering Study] , 1921