Pacific Highway is the name of several north–south highways in the Pacific Coast region of the Western United States, either by legislation officially designating it as such or by common usage.

Description

Good roads advocate and road-building pioneer Sam Hill was perhaps the main motivating force behind building the original Pacific Highway as a "national auto trail"; from Blaine, Washington, on the Canada–US border, where he would build his Peace Arch, through Oregon to the Siskiyou Mountains of northwestern California. The road was built in the early 20th century—long before the United States Numbered Highway System was established. In 1926, its of pavement made it the longest continuous stretch of paved road in the world at the time. The Pacific Highway later extended north to Vancouver, British Columbia, and south through San Francisco to San Diego in Southern California. The Pacific Highway auto trail became British Columbia Highway 99 from Vancouver to the Canada–United States border,

U.S. Route 99 U.S. Route 99 (US 99) was a main north–south United States Numbered Highway on the West Coast of the United States until 1964, running from Calexico, California, on the US–Mexico border to Blaine, Washington, on the U.S.-Canada border ...

from the border to Red Bluff, California, in the

Sacramento Valley , photo =Sacramento Riverfront.jpg , photo_caption= Sacramento , map_image=Map california central valley.jpg , map_caption= The Central Valley of California , location = California, United States , coordinates = , boundaries = Sierra Nevada (ea ...

;

U.S. Route 99W The following roads have been numbered 99W: United States * U.S. Route 99W (central California), Manteca to Stockton * U.S. Route 99W (northern California), Sacramento to Red Bluff * U.S. Route 99W (Oregon) * Oregon Route 99W See also *List of ...

from Red Bluff to Davis, California, in the Central Valley;

U.S. Route 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes wh ...

from Davis to San Francisco; and U.S. Route 101 from San Francisco to San Diego. This alignment is now mostly Interstate 5 in California, except between Woodland, and Los Angeles, where it uses

State Route 113 The following highways are numbered 113: Canada * British Columbia Highway 113 * New Brunswick Route 113 * Nova Scotia Highway 113 * Prince Edward Island Route 113 * Quebec Route 113 Costa Rica * National R ...

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

and then U.S. Route 101. Several routes are named Pacific Highway. Pacific Highway along the Columbia River, ca 1925 (TRANSPORT 242)

In Oregon, Interstate 5 is now officially the Pacific Highway No. 1 (see Oregon highways and routes). First completed in 1923, Oregon's Pacific Highway was the first border-to-border paved highway west of the Mississippi River. In California, Interstate 5 (Oregon's Pacific Highway) immediately becomes the Cascade Wonderland Highway as soon as it crosses the border, as far as Red Bluff, south of Redding. South from there, it takes on other names such as West Side Freeway or Golden State Freeway, through southern California. The name "Pacific Highway" only currently corresponds with I-5, for a limited stretch of Interstate 5, in Oregon and part of Washington, but not in California. An old freeway section of U.S. Route 101 parallel to Interstate 5 near the San Diego International Airport is known as "Pacific Highway," and is now locally maintained.

History

An extensive section of the Pacific Highway (over ), from approximately

Stockton Stockton may refer to: Places Australia * Stockton, New South Wales * Stockton, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region New Zealand *Stockton, New Zealand United Kingdom *Stockton, Cheshire *Stockton, Norfolk *Stockton, Chirbu ...

, California to Vancouver, Washington, followed very closely the track of the Siskiyou Trail. The Siskiyou Trail was based on an ancient network of Native American footpaths connecting the Pacific Northwest with California's Central Valley. By the 1820s, trappers from the Hudson's Bay Company were the first non-Native Americans to use the route of the future Pacific Highway to move between today's state of Washington and "

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

". During the second half of the 19th Century, mule trains, stagecoaches, and the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by Pacific Railroad Acts, U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in N ...

also followed the route of the Siskiyou Trail. In the early 20th century, around 1910, entrepreneur Sam Hill lobbied the governments of Washington and Oregon to build automobile roads along the path of the Siskiyou Trail, with the ultimate goal of building a paved auto route from Canada to Mexico.

Notes

References

External links

{{commons category, Pacific Highway (United States) * Officia
Museum of the Siskiyou Trail website

The historic Pacific Highway in Washington
Auto trails in the United States Named highways in California Historic trails and roads in California Named state highways in Oregon State highways in Oregon Roads in British Columbia Roads in Washington (state) Pacific