Moss Landing Road (Early California State Route 1)

Moss Landing Road is located in Monterey County in the namesake community of Moss Landing. The corridor was part of the original Coast Road between Monterey-Watsonville and was added to the State Highway system in 1933. Moss Landing Road would briefly carry California State Route 1 beginning in August 1934. The alignment was short lived as the modern bypass was completed the in October 1934.

Part 1; the history of Moss Landing Road

Moss Landing was settled in 1866 as a wharf at the confluence of the Old Salinas River, Elkhorn Slough and Moro Cojo Slough. The community's name is a reference to found Captain Charles Moss. Moss Landing supplied early the California Gold Rush communities with sugar beets, lumber and potatoes. The community was located on the Coast Road between Monterey-Watsonville. The Southern Pacific Railroad Coast Line would reach Moss Landing by 1871.

Moss Landing (displayed as Moss Log) can be seen along the Coast Road between Monterey and Watsonville on the 1882 Bancroft's map of California. The Coast Road originally passed through the community via what is now Moss Landing Road.

The Coast Road can be seen passing through Moss Landing on the 1912 United States Geological Survey map of Capitola.

State Highway service in Moss Landing began in 1933 when Legislative Route Number 56 was extended north from Carmel to Fernbridge. The initial State Highway routing through the community was via Moss Landing Road. The entirety of Legislative Route Number 56 was be announced as California State Route 1 in the August 1934 California Highways & Public Works.

California State Route 1 along Moss Landing Road was short lived. The highway was announced as having been realigned in the October 1934 California Highways & Public Works. The bypass of Moss Landing was part of a 11.3-mile project corridor from Castroville north to Watsonville.

Part 2; a drive on Moss Landing Road

Moss Landing Road acts as a western frontage of modern California State Route 1. The corridor can be used in conjunction with Potrero Road to reach Salinas River State Beach.

Northbound Moss Landing Road passes Moss Landing Cemetary. Said cemetery was established in 1869 shortly after the founding of Moss Landing.

Moss Landing Road enters the downtown area and intersects Sandholdt Road.

Moss Landing Road crosses at-grade over Moro Cojo Slough and terminates at California State Route 1 within view of the Moss Landing Power Plant. One of the few Sea Otter Crossing signs can be seen at Moro Cojo Slough. The natural gas power plant was commissioned by Pacific Gass & Electric in 1950. Interest in the facility was sold off to Duke Energy in 1998.

Comments

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...