California State Route 1
State Route 1 is a major north–south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U.S. state of California. At, it is the longest state route in California, and the second-longest in the US after Montana Highway 200. SR 1 has several portions designated as either Pacific Coast Highway, Cabrillo Highway, Shoreline Highway, or Coast Highway. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 5 near Dana Point in Orange County and its northern terminus is at U.S. Route 101 near Leggett in Mendocino County. SR 1 also at times runs concurrently with US 101, most notably through a stretch in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and across the Golden Gate Bridge.
The highway is designated as an All-American Road. In addition to providing a scenic route to numerous attractions along the coast, the route also serves as a major thoroughfare in the Greater Los Angeles Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and several other coastal urban areas. Though some maps and signs mark SR 1 as continuous through the cities of Dana Point, Newport Beach, Santa Monica, and Oxnard, control of segments within those cities were relinquished to those local jurisdictions and are thus no longer officially part of the state highway system. The Golden Gate Bridge is also officially not included in the state highway system because it is maintained locally by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.
SR 1 was built piecemeal in various stages, with the first section opening in the Big Sur region in the 1930s. However, portions of the route had several names and numbers over the years as more segments opened. It was not until the 1964 state highway renumbering that the entire route was officially designated as SR 1. Although SR 1 is a popular route for its scenery, frequent landslides and erosion along the coast have caused several segments to be either closed for lengthy periods for repairs, or re-routed inland.
Route description
Due to its fragmented nature and piecemeal relinquishments, the California Streets and Highways Code defines Route 1 across several subdivisions of section 301 as follows:Route 1 is from:
Route 5 south of San Juan Capistrano to Route 101 near El Rio except for the portions of Route 1 relinquished:
Route 101 at Emma Wood State Beach, 1.3 miles north of Route 33, to Route 101, 2.8 miles south of the Ventura-Santa Barbara county line at Mobil Pier Undercrossing.
Route 101 near Las Cruces to Route 101 in Pismo Beach via the vicinity of Lompoc, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and Guadalupe.
Route 101 in San Luis Obispo to Route 280 south of San Francisco along the coast via Cambria, San Simeon, and Santa Cruz.
Route 280 near the south boundary of the City and County of San Francisco to Route 101 near the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Route 101 near the southerly end of Marin Peninsula to Route 101 near Leggett via the coast route through Jenner and Westport.
The definition omits Route 1's concurrencies with Routes 101 and 280 instead of duplicating those segments in the other routes' definitions in the code. And while the former portions of Route 1 have been relinquished by the state to the cities of Dana Point, Newport Beach, Santa Monica, and Oxnard, section 301 subdivision further mandates that those cities must still "maintain within their respective jurisdictions signs directing motorists to the continuation of Route 1". In addition to the relinquished portions listed under subdivision, sections 301 subdivision, 301.1, 301.3, 303.4 and 301.5 of the code permit the state to relinquish select or all portions of Route 1 in the cities of Los Angeles, Torrance, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Pismo Beach respectively.
SR 1 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and through the Los Angeles metro area, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco metro area is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration.
The Big Sur section from San Luis Obispo to Carmel is an official National Scenic Byway. SR 1 is eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System; however, only a few stretches between Los Angeles and San Francisco have officially been designated as a scenic highway, meaning that there are substantial sections of highway passing through a "memorable landscape" with no "visual intrusions", where the potential designation has gained popular favor with the community.
The entire route is designated as a Blue Star Memorial Highway to recognize those in the United States armed forces; this designation is sponsored by the California Garden Clubs, but the organization has not erected such markers along SR 1 yet. In 1959, the legislature officially designated the segment in Southern California between Interstate 5 in Dana Point and US 101 near Oxnard as the Pacific Coast Highway. Between US 101 at the Las Cruces junction and US 101 in Pismo Beach, and between US 101 in San Luis Obispo and Interstate 280 in San Francisco, the legislature also designated SR 1 as the Cabrillo Highway in 1959, after the explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo who sailed along the coast line. The legislature also designated the route as the Shoreline Highway in 1957 between the Manzanita Junction near Marin City and Leggett. Smaller segments of the highway have been assigned several other names by the state and municipal governments.
For the most part, SR 1 runs parallel to the coastline, or close to it, but does turn several miles inland at various locations to avoid several federally controlled or protected areas such as Vandenberg Space Force Base, Diablo Canyon Power Plant and Point Reyes National Seashore. In addition to connecting the coastal cities and communities along its path, the route provides access to beaches, parks, and other attractions along the coast, making it a popular route for tourists. The route annually helps bring several billion dollars to the state's tourism industry. Segments of SR 1 range from urban freeway to simple rural two-lane road. Under the California Coastal Act, those segments of the highway that run through the rural areas of the protected California Coastal Zone may not be widened beyond a scenic two-lane road.
Orange County
At its southernmost end in Orange County, SR 1 terminates at I-5 in Capistrano Beach in Dana Point. It then travels west into the city center. After leaving Dana Point, Pacific Coast Highway becomes simply "Coast Highway" while at the same time continuing northwest along the coast through Laguna Beach and Crystal Cove State Park.SR 1 then enters Newport Beach and passes through several affluent neighborhoods, including Newport Coast and Corona Del Mar, spans the entrance to the Upper Newport Bay, which marks the boundary between East Coast Highway and West Coast Highway, and crosses California State Route 55 near its southern terminus. Upon crossing the Santa Ana River mouth and entering Huntington Beach, SR 1 regains the Pacific Coast Highway designation. It passes Huntington State Beach and the southern terminus of California State Route 39 before reaching Bolsa Chica State Beach and the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. PCH then continues along the coast into Seal Beach, the final city on its journey in Orange County.
Los Angeles and Ventura counties
PCH enters Los Angeles County and the city of Long Beach after crossing the San Gabriel River. SR 1 then continues northwest through the city to its junction with Lakewood Boulevard and Los Coyotes Diagonal at the Los Alamitos Circle, more than from the coast. From the traffic circle, it continues inland west through Long Beach, including approximately one mile adjacent to the southern boundary of Signal Hill. PCH is marked as such in Long Beach, but originally bore the name of Hathaway Avenue east of the traffic circle and State Street west of there. PCH then passes through the Los Angeles districts of Wilmington and Harbor City. While bypassing the immediate coastline of Palos Verdes, SR 1 continues to head west into the cities of Lomita and Torrance along the route of the former Redondo-Wilmington Boulevard.PCH then turns north through Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach. Upon entering Manhattan Beach, it becomes Sepulveda Boulevard and turns back into PCH designation through El Segundo. At Imperial Highway, it regains the name Sepulveda Boulevard as it descends and passes under two runways of Los Angeles International Airport via the Airport Tunnel.
After leaving LAX, SR 1 splits from Sepulveda and turns northwest, becoming Lincoln Boulevard and passing through the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Westchester, Playa Vista, and Venice, as well as the unincorporated community of Marina Del Rey. This portion of SR 1 suffers heavy congestion at most times due to the shortage of alternate north-south arterial roads west of Interstate 405. It then enters the city of Santa Monica, where SR 1 turns southwest, merging onto the westernmost segment of the Santa Monica Freeway. Passing through the McClure Tunnel, SR 1 emerges along the beachfront in Santa Monica as PCH again and continues along the coast, separated from Downtown Santa Monica by the palisades north of Santa Monica Pier; this portion is also known locally as Palisades Beach Road and formerly as Roosevelt Highway. Upon leaving Santa Monica, PCH continues to follow the coast, curving west through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles before becoming the main thoroughfare of the city of Malibu while traversing the entire of that city.
SR 1 crosses the county line and continues through the Ventura County portion of the Malibu coast through Leo Carrillo State Park and Point Mugu State Park. After passing through a notch in the promontory that marks Point Mugu, the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains, and the beginning of the Oxnard Plain. The road cut left a very large rock formation at the tip of the point that is called the Mugu Rock. At that point, PCH leaves the coast and heads north, and then northwest as a freeway along the northeastern boundary of Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu for several miles to an interchange at Rice Avenue, Pleasant Valley Road, and Oxnard Boulevard in Oxnard. The reconstructed interchange at Rice Avenue and Pleasant Valley Road channels traffic north on the surface street, Rice Avenue, towards the interchange with US 101. The historic route along Oxnard Boulevard was relinquished in 2014. Truck traffic to and from the Port of Hueneme also uses this designated route at the Rice Avenue/Hueneme Road connector to connect with Route 101 at the Rice Avenue Interchange.
After traveling through Ventura, SR 1 separates from US 101 to travel the historic beach route along the Rincon coast that was originally opened up by the construction of the Railroad Coastal Route from Emma Wood State Beach to the Mobil Pier Undercrossing near Sea Cliff, where it rejoins US 101 about south of the Santa Barbara County line near La Conchita.