Skip to main content

Disaster Tourism Road Trip Part 1; California State Route 129

By
Back in February of this year the heavy winter rains had finally started to subside.  Pretty much across the entire state of California there was extensive mudslides that had wiped out several roadways.  At the time there was already an extensive slide on California State Route 35 and Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge on CA 1 had already been damaged beyond repair.  Amid the chaos the Santa Cruz Range was getting hit hard with various closures throughout the mountains.  Local news stations across San Francisco Bay were being openly critical of people traveling through the slides to check out the aftermath; specifically they were being called "disaster tourists."

Given the weather was starting to improve I made plans for a weekend trip through the Santa Cruz Range northward to the countryside north of San Francisco Bay.  I started my Disaster Tourism Trip with a clinch of CA 129.






CA 129 is a 14 mile state highway traversing the Santa Cruz Range from US 101 in San Benito County to CA 1 in Watonsville in Santa Cruz County.  My travel direction on CA 129 was westbound from US 101 to CA 1.





CA 129 is mostly a two-lane highway uses a low pass through the Santa Cruz Range following the general path of the Pajaro River.  CA 129 runs entirely on Riverside Drive.





At Old Chittenden Road there is a rail crossing which CA 129 crosses under.  Not even CA 129 was immune to mudslides as the highway was closed through the pass shortly before my trip.






Westward CA 129 emerges into Salinas Valley and begins to approach the coast near Watstonville.





After passing through the farm lands CA 129 enters Wastonville and intersects County Route G2 at Main Street.  G2 is the connecting route between CA 129 and CA 129 which is a block north on Beach Street.  Before CA 1 was built to a freeway it ran on Main Street in Watsonville and CA 129 ended here.





The freeway alignment of CA 1 was built some time between 1967 and 1969.  The change can be seen on the State Highway Maps of the respective years in addition to the changes to both CA 129 and CA 152 which were both extended.

1967 State Highway Map

1969 State Highway Map

Modern CA 129 continues west out of downtown Watsonville and ends at the CA 129 freeway.



Prior to 1964 CA 129 was the unsigned Legislative Route 67.  LRN 67 was first defined back in 1921 from LRN 2 (US 101) to Chittenden Station.  In 1933 LRN 67 was extended to Watsonville, CAhighway.org details the history of LRN 67/CA 129.

CAhighways.org on LRN 67

CAhighways.org on CA 129

There was a minor alignment shift at some point along LRN 67/CA 129.  It would seem that the highway at one point took a 90 degree angle through Johnston Corner via Carlton Road and Thompson Road instead of the modern bypass on Riverside Drive.  The original post 1933 alignment can be seen on the 1935 California Division of Highway Santa Cruz County Map.

1935 Santa Cruz County Map


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

By
In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l
3 comments
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Mannfield, FL and the stairway to Hell

By
Back in 2015 I went searching the Lecanto Sand Hills for the original Citrus County Seat known as Mannfield.  Unlike Centrailia in Hernando County and Fivay in Pasco County I did find something worth seeing. Mannfield is located in the Lecanto Sand Hill section of Withlacoochee State Forest somewhat east of the intersection of Citrus County Route 491 and Mansfield Road. Mannfield was named after Austin Mann and founded in Hernando County in 1884 before Citrus County Split away.  In 1887 Citrus County was split from northern Hernando County while Pasco County was spun off to the south.  Mannfield was selected as the new Citrus County seat due to it being near the county geographic center.  Reportedly Mannfield had as many as 250 people when it was the County Seat.  The town included various businesses one might include at the time, even a sawmill which was common for the area.  In 1891 Citrus County voted to move it's seat to Inverness which set the stage for the decline of M
6 comments
Read more

The National Road - Pennsylvania - Great Crossings Bridge and Somerfield

By
West of Addison, US 40 crosses the Youghiogheny River at what once was the town of Somerfield.  When crossing the current modern two lane bridge, you many not realize that it is actually the third to cross the Yough at this site.  The first - a stone arch bridge - was known as the Great Crossings Bridge.  Built in 1818, this three arch bridge was part of the original National Road.  The name Great Crossings comes from the men who forded the Youghiogheny here - George Washington and George Braddock. (1)  If you cross the bridge at the right time, this historic bridge and what was once the town of Somerfield will appear out from underneath this massive man-made lake. Historical Postcard showing the 'Big Crossings' bridge and Somerfield.  Image submitted by Vince Ferrari. The Great Crossings Bridge was located in the town of Somerfield.  Somerfield, originally named Smythfield until 1827, would develop as a result of the National Road. (1)  Somerfield would go through va
Post a Comment
Read more