Skip to main content

Colorado Road (Fresno County)

By

Colorado Road is a rural highway located in San Joaquin Valley of western Fresno County.  Colorado Road services the city of San Joaquin in addition the unincorporated communities of Helm and Tranquility.  Colorado Road was constructed between 1910 and 1912 as a frontage road of the Hanford & Summit Lake Railway.  The roadway begins at California State Route 145 near Helm and terminates to the west at James Road in Tranquility.  




Part 1; the history of Colorado Road

Colorado Road was constructed as frontage road connecting the sidings of the Hanford & Summit Lake Railway.  The Hanford & Summit Lake Railway spanned from South Pacific Railroad West Side Line at Ingle junction southeast to the Coalinga Branch at Armona.  The Hanford & Summit Lake Railway broke ground during August 1910 and was complete by April 1912.

The Hanford & Summit Lake Railway established numerous new sidings.  From Ingle the sidings of the line were Tranquility, Graham, San Joaquin, Caldwell, Helm, Burrell, Riverdale, Robinson, Hub, Lynn and Hardwick.  The Hanford & Summit Lake sidings between Tranquility southeast to Helm were adjoined by a frontage road which came to be known as Colorado Road.  The Hanford & Summit Lake Railway and the sidings along modern Colorado Road can be seen on the 1914 C.F. Weber Map of Fresno County.  


San Joaquin would be formally plotted as a town in 1915.  The Hanford & Summit Lake Railway would be sold to the Southern Pacific Railroad during October 1917.  The Southern Pacific would rename their new line along Colorado Road as the "Riverdale Branch."  San Joaquin would become the only city to formally incorporate along Colorado Road which occurred during February 1920. 

Colorado Road can be seen aligned between Tranquility and Held as a major county highway on the 1935 Division of Highways Map of Fresno County.  The north/south highway through Helm would become part of California State Route 145 in 1970 when the highway was extended from Kerman to Interstate 5.  


The Riverdale Branch between Burrell and Riverdale was abandoned during 1952.  What remained of the line north of Burrell was sold to Port Railroads in 1994.  The Riverdale Branch along Colorado Road became was later sold to the San Joaquin Valley Railroad in 1996.  



Part 2; a drive along Colorado Road

Westbound Colorado Road begins at California State Route 145 near Helm.  Traffic is advised San Joaquin is 7 miles from Helm on Colorado Road whereas San Joaquin is 12 miles.  Note, all the photos in this section of the blog were taken during 2019.



Colorado Road westbound follows the Riverdale Branch and enters the city of San Joaquin at Manning Avenue.  








Colorado Road westbound passes through the city of San Joaquin. 





Colorado Road continues west to Tranquility and terminates at James Road. 





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morgan Territory Road

By
Morgan Territory Road is an approximately 14.7-mile-long roadway mostly located in the Diablo Range of Contra Costa County, California.  The roadway is named after settler Jerimah Morgan who established a ranch in the Diablo Range in 1857.  Morgan Territory Road was one of several facilities constructed during the Gold Rush era to serve the ranch holdings.   The East Bay Regional Park District would acquire 930 acres of Morgan Territory in 1975 in an effort to establish a preserve east of Mount Diablo. The preserve has since been expanded to 5,324 acres. The preserve functionally stunts the development along roadway allowing it to remain surprisingly primitive in a major urban area. Part 1; the history of Morgan Territory Road During the period of early period of American Statehood much of the Diablo Range of Contra Costa County was sparsely developed.   Jerimah Morgan acquired 2,000 acres of land east of Mount Diablo in 1856 and established a ranch in 1857. Morgan Territory Road is
2 comments
Read more

The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge (Madera County)

By
The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge is an early era arch concrete structure found alongside modern Madera County Road 200.  The structure was modeled as a smaller scale of the 1905 Pollasky Bridge (still in ruins at the San Joaquin River) and was one of many early twentieth century improvements to what was then known as the Fresno-Fresno Flats Road.  The 1915-era bridge was replaced with a modernized concrete span during 1947 but was never demolished.  The original concrete structure can be still found sitting in the brush north of the 2023 Fine Gold Creek Bridge.     Part 1; the history of the 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge lies near the site of the former mining community of Fine Gold.   Mining claims were staked at Fine Gold during the Mariposa War during 1850. The community was never very large but became a stopping point on the stage road between the original Fresno County seat at Millerton and Fresno Flats (now Oakhurst). The stage road eventually bypas
Post a Comment
Read more

San Francisco's Broadway Tunnel

By
The Broadway Tunnel in San Francisco is a structure at Russian Hill which connects the neighborhood Chinatown to North Beach. The tunnel was included in the 1948 San Francisco Trafficways Plan as a connector between the Central Freeway and Embarcadero Freeway. The structure was completed in December 1952 and spans 1,616 feet through Russian Hill. The Broadway Tunnel was designated as the Robert C. Levy Tunnel in 1986. Part 1; the history of the Broadway Tunnel Following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 San Francisco would see a major population boom.  The city would expand from the shores of San Francisco Bay inland towards the many steep hills.  The hills of San Francisco would prove to be a major hinderance towards the expansion of city.  Roads were generally plotted over the tops of hillsides and had steep grades.  Russian Hill in particular was one of the steepest and contained numerous streets with grades in excess of twenty percent.  Broadway can be seen cros
Post a Comment
Read more