Skip to main content

Lockwood-San Lucas Road

By


Lockwood-San Lucas Road is a fifteen-mile rural highway located in Monterey County, California.  As the name suggests, Lockwood-San Lucas Road connects the communities of Lockwood and San Lucas.  The highway begins at Lockwood-Jolon Road in San Antonio Valley.  From San Antonio Valley the highway crosses the Santa Lucia Mountains and enters Salinas Valley where it crosses the 1915 Salinas River Bridge near San Lucas.  Lockwood-San Lucas Road originally connected with Main Street in San Lucas, but the crossing was removed in the 1970s.  




Part 1; the history of Lockwood-San Lucas Road

Lockwood-San Lucas Roads connects the two namesake communities via the San Lucia Mountains and Salinas River.  Lockwood lies in San Antonio Valley east of Mission San Antonio de Padua.  Lockwood is named in honor of Belva Lockwood who ran for President on the Equal Rights Party ticket in 1884 and 1888.  Post Office Service in Lockwood was established in 1888.  

By 1886 the Southern Pacific Railroad was extended southward from Soledad through Rancho San Lucas.  The Southern Pacific Railroad established a railroad siding which took the name of "San Lucas" in honor of the property donated by Alberto Trescony.  By 1887 Post Office service was transferred from nearby Griswold and has remained operating ever since.  

During 1915 a truss bridge over the Salinas River southwest of San Lucas was installed by Monterey County.  The Salinas River Bridge functionally made direct automotive travel between Lockwood and San Lucas possible.  

The entirety of modern Lockwood-San Lucas Road (displayed as Lockwood Grade) appears on the 1919 United States Geological Survey Maps of King City and Bryson.  Lockwood-San Lucas Road is shown to cross the Santa Lucia Mountains via San Lucas Canyon and Espinosa Canyon.




Lockwood-San Lucas Road appears as a major local highway on the 1935 Division of Highways map of Monterey County.  

The US Route 101 and California State Route 198 bypasses of San Lucas opened during 1972.  US Route 101 was shifted to a new freeway west of Cattlemen Road and California State Route 198 was extended directly to it via an interchange structure southwest of San Lucas.  The then new terminus of California State Route 198 bisected part of Lockwood-San Lucas between the Salinas River Bridge and San Lucas.  

Former California State Route 198 in San Lucas was also partially severed after the highway was realigned.  Mary Street no longer directly connects traffic from California State Route 198 to Main Street.  The Southern Pacific Railroad crossing from Main Street to Cattlemen Road/Lockwood-San Lucas Road was removed.  The new alignments of US Route 101 and California State Route 198 appear on the 1975 Caltrans Map.




Part 2; a drive on Lockwood-San Lucas Road

Northbound Lockwood-San Lucas Road begins at the outskirts of Lockwood along Lockwood-Jolon Road.  Traffic is notified that San Lucas is fifteen miles away.  


Lockwood-San Lucas Road climbs into the Santa Lucia Mountains via San Lucas Canyon as a single lane.  The road crests at an elevation of 1,673 feet above sea level.  


















Lockwood-San Lucas Road descends through Espinosa Canyon and enters Salinas Valley.




















Lockwood-San Lucas Road widens to two-lanes approaching an interchange with US Route 101.




Lockwood-San Lucas Road makes a left-hand turn at Paris Valley Road.  


Lockwood-San Lucas Road makes a right-hand turn at Oasis Road towards the Salinas River.




Lockwood-San Lucas Road crosses the 1915 Salinas River Bridge. 




Below the now missing dedication placard which once was affixed to the Salinas River Bridge (courtesy southern Monterey County historian John Jernigan). 


Lockwood-San Lucas Road approaches another interchange with US Route 101 and the eastbound start of California State Route 198.  




As noted in Part 1, a disconnected segment of Lockwood-San Lucas Road exists east of the US Route 101 freeway.  From the intersection of Cattlemen Road (former US Route 101) and Lockwood-San Lucas Road the razed former grade of California State Route 198 to Main Street in San Lucas can be observed.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crescent City Connection (New Orleans, LA)

By
The Crescent City Connection is a massive dual-span steel truss bridge that spans the lower Mississippi River at downtown New Orleans, about 95 river miles upstream from the mouth of the great river at the Head of Passes Light. If counted as a single bi-directional highway bridge, the parallel spans combine to form the single busiest bridge on the Mississippi River and its importance as a linchpin in the region’s transportation network cannot be overstated. While there have been various schemes over the years to construct bridges downriver from Algiers Point, this bridge has been the southernmost bridge on the Mississippi River since its initial construction in the 1950s. The years immediately following the end of World War II were a transformational period in the history of New Orleans. Already one of the great economic and cultural centers of the American Deep South, it was recognized at this time that major changes and improvements to the city’s transportation infrastructure would b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Old US Route 99 through Tipton, Tulare, and Tagus Ranch

By
This summer I had a look into the alignment history of US Route 99 through the Tulare County communities of Tipton, Tulare, and Tagus Ranch.  While this slab below might seem like much it is one of the few remaining reminders of how US Route 99 was during the 1920s in Tulare County. This blog is part of the larger Gribblenation US Route 99 Page.  For more information pertaining to the other various segments of US Route 99 and it's three-digit child routes check out the link the below. Gribblenation US Route 99 Page Part 1; the history of US Route 99 in Tipton, Tulare, and Tagus Ranch Tipton and Tulare were both founded in 1872 as sidings of the Southern Pacific Railroad.  The Southern Pacific Railroad laid the groundwork for development of southern San Joaquin Valley.  Previous to the Southern Pacific Railroad travel via wagon or foot in Central California tended to avoid San Joaquin Valley in favor of the Stockton-Los Angeles Road.  The Stockton Los Ange...
Post a Comment
Read more

Winnemucca to the Sea Highway

By
The Winnemucca to the Sea Highway was conceived as an idea to establish a continuous, improved route branching from what was then US Highway 40 (now I-80) in Winnemucca, Nevada to the Pacific Coast in Crescent City, California . This highway was to span 494 miles as it crossed through deserts, mountains and forests on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Community leaders from points along this proposed highway formed the Winnemucca to the Sea Highway Association, which worked with state and local governments to obtain funding for the planning, construction and upgrade of the highway. The original proposal was to create one highway, numbered 140, which was to be applied to the complete route as the parent major US highway was coast-to-coast US-40, the Victory Highway. However, this idea never fully came to fruition. Currently, a traveler driving on the Winnemucca to the Sea Highway actually follows seven different highway numbers, which are US 95, NV 140, OR 140, US 395, OR 62, I-5, US 19...
Post a Comment
Read more