Skip to main content

California State Route 185 from Interstate 238 to CA 112

While on a recent Bay Area trip I drove a portion of California State Route 185 from Interstate 238 in Ashland to CA 112 in downtown San Leandro.


Prior to recent relinquishment in the City of Hayward the route of CA 185 was a 10 mile State Highway.  CA 185 once began at CA 92/CA 238 in downtown Hayward and headed northwest to CA 77 in Oakland on 14th Street.

The route of CA 185 was part of LRN 105 which was defined by the state legislature in 1933.  The route of LRN 105 incorporated much of what is now CA 92 and the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge.  North out of Hayward liked used the following route:

-  From Mission Boulevard from Foothill Boulevard north out of the City of Hayward.
-  14th Street through Ashland and San Leandro into Oakland.
-  14th Street to 44th Avenue.
-  44th Avenue to 12th Street.
-  12th Street to Lake Merit Boulevard which was part of LRN 5.  LRN 5 out of Oakland was part of US 101E by 1929 and later US 50 when it was extended to Oakland in 1935.

The original routing of LRN 105 from Hayward to Oakland can be seen on the 1934 State Highway Map.

1934 State Highway Map 

By 1935 LRN 105 was extended into downtown Oakland as part of the highway shifts for the construction of the Bay Bridge on the following alignments. 

-  12th Street to 8th Street.
-  8th Street through what is now Laney College to Fallon Street.
-  Fallon Street to 7th Street.
-  7th Street to a terminus at Adeline Street in downtown Oakland.

The original alignment of LRN 105 can be seen on the 1935 California Division of Highways Map of Alameda.

1935 Alameda County Highway Map

CA 13 in 1934 was routed on LRN 105 from Washington Street and 14th Street in downtown San Leandro into Oakland.  CA 13 was replaced by CA 17 likely by 1936 according to CAhighways.org.  CA 17 followed LRN 105 into downtown Oakland where an extension routed it on Cypress Street to US 40/50 at the Bay Bridge.   The Cyrpress alignment of LRN 105 can be seen completed as part of CA 17 on the 1938 State Highway Map.  The extension of LRN 105 was likely completed on Cypress by 1936 when the Bay Bridge opened.

1938 State Highway Map

By 1950 part of the Nimitz Freeway on LRN 69 had been completed from LRN 105/CA 17 east of Fallon Street in Oakland.

1950 State Highway Map

By 1953 CA 17/LRN 69 was shifted onto the Nimitz Freeway from Fallon Street eastward out of Oakland.  CA 17 remained on LRN 105 on 7th Street and Cypress Street westward to US 40/50.

1953 State Highway Map

By 1957 CA 17 was shifted to the fully completed Nimitz Freeway and LRN 105 was cut back to High Street close to where CA 185 presently terminates.

1957 State Highway Map

During the 1964 State Highway Renumbering LRN 105 between Hayward and Oakland was assigned CA 185.

1963 State Highway Map

1964 State Highway Map

According to CAhighways.org in 2010 the legislature authorized CA 185 to be relinquished between Foothill Boulevard and A Street in Hayward.  The relinquishment was extended to the northern City limit in 2015.  In 2017 additional legislative action authorized a future relinquishment of CA 185 in unincorporated Alameda County and the City of San Leandro in 2018.  It would seem that it is likely that in the near future that CA 185 will cease to be a State Highway.

CAhighways.org on CA 185

My drive on CA 185 started from I-238 eastbound at Exit 15 for Mission Boulevard/14th Street.




I-238 Exit 15 actually puts traffic onto Lewelling Boulevard.  Traffic headed towards CA 185 must turn left towards 14th Street.



CA 185 appears to not be signed on 14th Street any longer.  CA 185 north crosses below I-238 and enters San Leandro near Fairmont Drive.






CA 185 north follows 14th Street through downtown San Leandro where it meets CA 112 at unsigned junction at Davis Street.  CA 17 originally reached LRN 105 at the intersection of 14th Street, Davis Street and Washington Street.  Washington Street would have meet 14th Street and Davis Street on the far left in the last photo below.  Washington Street in downtown San Leandro is now mostly a plaza and no longer a through street.








Comments

Unknown said…
Your article on CA 185 mentions the town of Ashland. I was puzzled by this, I looked it up and sure enough there is an Ashland nestled in between Castro Valley and San Lorenzo. I have lived in the Bay Area 40+ years, driven thru that area many times, and never heard about Ashland before. So I learned something new today!

Popular posts from this blog

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park.  As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park.  Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870.  The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona.   In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers.  The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines.  The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917.  Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

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...

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...