Five miles east of Santa Margarita, State 58 crosses the Salinas River. Until 1996, the highway crossed via this 1914 Parker truss span. From 1934 to 1964, the bridge was crossed by State 178, which became State 58 in 1964. The approach to the old bridge included two sharp curves at either end, which the new concrete bridge (49-0237) and alignment eliminated. Today, it is closed to motor vehicle traffic and marked as a Historic Bridge. The new bridge is to the north of this at SLO-58-R4.8.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the February 9, 1971 M6.6 Sylmar / San Fernando Earthquake, our featured image shows the construction work in progress on the I-5 and State 14 interchange in 1970. This work would be halted abruptly in the early hours of February 9, 1971. After this, it would be reconstructed two more times. The earthquake changed the way freeways such as this were built and did further seismic codes throughout the state.
For further information about the interchange:
I acquired this postcard recently and wanted to share. It depicts Mission Valley in San Diego. While the exact date is unknown, it is likely from the early 1920’s. So much has changed in this view. It appears to be near I-805 at the south side of the valley and is looking east toward Mission Trails Regional Park. The stadium would be just outside the view to the left. The road along the bottom of the postcard roughly follows Camino Del Rio, which was the predecessor to US 80 / I-8 in the valley.
US 99 parallels the Southern Pacific Railroad for a significant portion of its journey across the Great Central Valley. At times, it has to cross those tracks. Many of those crossings were the site of collisions, mostly by people trying to beat the train. They also slowed traffic down quite a bit. In a statewide effort to reduce problems at grade crossings, the State built grade-separations at these locations.
At Famoso, north of Bakersfield, an underpass was built in 1936, which eliminated one of the busier crossing. That structure was eventually replaced by an overpass in 1970. Today, the original crossing partially remains, with paving leading from the freeway to the railroad. The last time a car traversed this paving may well have been over 70 years ago.