California Roads - 49 Mile Dr.



Photos progress counterclockwise, because that's the only direction the Drive can be followed due to one-way streets, starting in downtown. I also need to note that these photos are on 49 Mile (Scenic) Drive as of 10/19/14, because San Francisco routinely adjusts its route.


Market St. has these odd round signals. Photos start on 1st St. SB, then west on Howard St., then to 9th St. NB.


Powell St. takes the trolley uphill as I turn onto Sutter St.


Grant Ave. has cool lanterns on both sides through Chinatown, where I head north to California St.


From California St. onto Taylor St., onto Washington St., back to Powell St. at Cable Car Corner, where a signal hasn't been removed. For the difficulty of putting out perfect X's of tape, just unscrew a couple of bolts and bring all the signal heads home with you. Is that one at upper left green-red-green? Must be a cable car signal.


More lamps means we're back at Grant St. (from Clay St. EB). 49 Mile Dr. does a great job of being convoluted and counterintuitive. Notice the translated street names.


From Beech St. onto Polk St., to Laguna St. curving into Marina Blvd., affording morning views of the Golden Gate Bridge. So far we've seen streetcars, Chinatown, and this bridge. What other quintessential San Fran can we pick up?


Chestnut St. WB just across US 101, then continuing west to the Legion of Honor Plaza and Legion of Honor Fountain on Legion of Honor Drive, the official west end of the Lincoln Highway. That's pretty (quint)essential. Click on the base of the lamp for a closeup of its pioneering details.


Another view of the post, then to the end of John Muir Dr. where we have another former signal not removed. At least bag the heads! The photo atop this page falls in this photo run, leaving Lincoln Park on 34th Ave.


This sign is absent from most street views, so I imagine it's stolen often. One time you might want to add "Way" within the street blade.


Sunset Blvd. takes its linear park under Sloat Blvd. (CA 35) and then enters Golden Gate Park under Lincoln Way. The last bridge is on JFK Dr. EB just past where 49 Mile Dr. turns off onto Transverse Dr.


Kezar Dr. narrows as it leaves Golden Gate Park. I am then on Judah St. WB at 7th Ave. with a new or potentially just wrong design (hopefully the latter), Laguna Honda Blvd. SB by Forest Hill Church, and turned north again on Twin Peaks Blvd. at Panorama Dr. San Francisco took the opportunity of replacing the faded sign to lower the speed limit to 25 mph, which I'd rail against but the curves make it difficult to sustain even that.


The roadly views from the top of Twin Peaks include both halves of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (I-80), with the old truss in the background undergoing removal, and two blue viaducts of US 101. The Bayshore Freeway is the one in the foreground, ending as it heads northeast offscreen to the right at the beginning of I-80. US 101 then exits onto the Central Freeway, which cuts back west in the background but soon ends in a stub.


I won't narrate every turn, but I end up at Church and Market Sts., where a trolley comes to rest on Market as I cross on Church. We're a ways away from Philadelphia here.


Cesar Chavez St. (Army St. until 1995) is the bottom level of a complex stack intersection/interchange with Potrero Ave./Bayshore Blvd. and a raft of ramps to and from US 101. I believe the complex was constructed in 1950. The button copy sign may be old enough to date to when the freeway was Bypass US 101 and there was a surface alignment into downtown. If not, I don't know what's patched.


Looking back southwest at Evans Ave. on a 1947 bridge over a long-removed railroad.


49 Mile Drive actually does hop on the Interstate for a bit to get up to its last quintessential piece, The Embarcadero. Signs follow Indiana St. to the onramp.


Last but not least, here are views from The Embarcadero as I drive north under the Bay Bridge at night.

Onto I-280 and 49 Mile Drive/I-280

More Golden Gate Bridge views
Onto US 101
Up onto I-80
See more of San Francisco
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