Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/410603
A mong the world's most famous thoroughfares is the 100-mile, two-lane blacktop that snakes along the Big Sur coast from Carmel to Cambria. It offers up some of the most stunning views any- where, regularly popping up on travel writers' bucket lists and at the head of top driving destination lists. Its official name is the Big Sur Coast Highway, but it was originally the Carmel-San Simeon Highway when dedicated in 1937. This inspiring marvel of early-20th century engineering technology draws 21st century tourists in ever-increasing numbers. They marvel slack- jawed at the raw beauty it affords and appreciate the access it provides to both rugged back-country adventure and pampering at the region's unpar- alleled accommodations, restaurants and spas. And, we owe its existence to a sawbones, a State Senator and a shipwreck. The road designated as California Highway 1 takes many forms and car- ries several, sometimes confusing names during its mostly Pacific-hugging route along the West Coast of the Golden State from the intersection of I-5 at Dana Point to its ter- minus at Leggett in Mendocino County. According to the California Department of Transportation, down south it's known as the PCH (for Pacific Coast Highway), while from the Golden Gate nor th through Mendocino County it's the Shoreline Highway, interrupted by a section through Sonoma County called the Coast Highway. The Cabrillo Highway actually comprises two sections: from US 101 near Las Cruces to Lompoc in Santa Barbara County and from the Santa Cruz County line to Half Moon Bay. The route was also conceived as part of the Roosevelt Highway, a road that was to trace the West Coast of the US. Sometimes it goes underground, subsumed by and 104 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 4 Bixby Creek was completed in 14 months for less than $200,000, enabling year-round access to Big Sur. The Old Coast Road heads east from here, a time capsule of what travel was like prior to the completion of Highway 1. Photos: California Views/caviews.com Though convict labor was used extensively in Highway 1 construction, skilled labor and machine operation were performed by free men.