State highway system started in San Bruno

The Redwood City Democrat called the groundbreaking an “international event,” noting that hundreds of “good roads enthusiasts” attended the ceremony, including some from as far away as Canada. A public barbecue was held not far from where bags of cement and sand sat, lined up to be tossed in mixers that would create roads that could withstand the rapidly increasing number of cars that were growing in popularity. Potholes were in the future — down the road so to speak.

Initially, there was little automobile traffic on the stretch of highway, according to some reports that said children used the pavement for roller skating. The situation would soon change as more and more drivers took to the highways. The Democrat saw the change coming and devoted an entire supplement that called for a modern road system throughout San Mateo County.

The supplement was a one-page glossy insert that has held up remarkably well more than 100 years after it appeared on Aug. 15, 1912. The paper called the county a “garden spot” with “beauties that should be more accessible.” It proposed a 104-mile system of roads to “gridiron” the county from the Bay to the ocean, estimating the cost at $1.2 million.

In 1927, San Bruno could boast about having the most traveled section of highway in California. State Highway Commission personnel recorded the number of cars that used state roads in July of that year and found that 29,338 vehicles ran over the San Bruno section. Indiana Street in Los Angeles was second at 22,385.

The groundbreaking in San Bruno followed a three-day San Francisco convention of the Pacific Highway Association, which included representatives of auto dealerships and car clubs throughout the West Coast. The association members were given a scenic tour of the county after the festivities that included a barbecue, reported the San Mateo Times.

A similar celebration was held in San Bruno in 2012 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the California state highway system. More than 100 people attended the event at City Hall which featured 75 vintage automobiles.

Why was San Bruno picked as the starting point?

“The decision to start here seems to have been influenced by the efforts of the tri-county committee demanding that work commence with El Camino Real and the fact that San Bruno was as yet unincorporated,” local historian Joan Levy wrote. San Bruno incorporated in 1914. The tri-county committee consisted of representatives from San Francisco and San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. No state highway work could be done in incorporated cities, which left San Francisco out when it came to the spending of the $18 million approved in 1909 in Sacramento through California’s first highway bond act.

“Since no work could be done in incorporated cities, San Francisco itself could not participate in the state funds,” Levy wrote in La Peninsula magazine. “The opening of the route into the city was still of paramount importance to San Francisco boosters.”

Known now as Caltrans, the department today is in charge of 50,000 miles of highway, and it all started in San Bruno.

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.

The other photo shows a 2012 reenactment.