San Diego County

Old US 101 in San Diego

A reader, Mike Evans, recently contacted me regarding curb stamps along old US 101 near Middletown in San Diego. He found something which, to be honest, is most surprising. The City of San Diego had the practice of stamping the street name on the curb near intersections. As these intersections get upgraded with ADA compliant …

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San Diego Slow Streets

Many cities throughout the US have implemented a “slow streets” program to help make it easier for people to get out and exercise during this crisis. In San Diego, this has taken on the form of a “light” closure of some roadways. This means that the roadways aren’t closed entirely to motor vehicles, but through …

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San Diego Electric Railway #11 line at El Cajon Blvd

Recent utility work on Park Blvd has indirectly revealed that the tracks for the former SDERy #11 line (Downtown to Kensington via Park and Adams) are still buried beneath Park Blvd, at least at El Cajon Blvd. Looking at video from 1970 of Park Blvd wasn’t really helpful in spotting the tracks as they seem …

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From the Archives – 1956

Looking south toward Mission Bay. Courtesy – Caltrans

The first section of the San Diego Freeway in San Diego (US 101 at the time) to be constructed was the Mission Bay Bypass in 1954. Elements of this construction can still be seen today, such as some older curbing at the intersection of Damon Ave and Santa Fe St. North and south of this small section of freeway, it was still a narrower four-lane roadway with some expressway sections. Between 1966 (north) and 1969 (south), the adjacent sections were constructed, completing I-5 in the City of San Diego.

City of San Diego – 1970

The City of San Diego Clerk has been placing a large number of videos on YouTube over the past few months which are quite unique and eye-opening. In 1970, the City created videos of many of the roadways in San Diego. These are done in the same manner as Caltrans Photologs, which essentially takes a photo of the road every few feet or so, creating a fast motion video of the road. Roads such as Murphy Canyon Road and Kearny Villa Road no longer exist in the same manner as they did back then. Both have been greatly modified by I-15 and State 163. Some of the street names don’t match current names, however. Black Mountain Road, as shown in the video, is basically Del Mar Heights Road and Landsdale Dr, among others. Miramar Rd, in the video, covers current Eastgate Mall as well, as it was the old alignment of Miramar Rd through to UCSD.

These videos show this and more. Why not see it for yourself and be amazed! Try and count the number of spinning gas station signs too.

San Diego City Clerk YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn1v1JAjFEEvqMi-VHpee5w/videos