California State Route 17 - History

History

The earliest connection between Santa Cruz and San Jose was an old Native America foot trail. The first road that could be navigated by a wagon was a dirt toll road built by Charlie McKiernan, known as "Mountain Charlie" by locals, some time around 1853. Portions of this road still exist as Mountain Charlie Road, to the west of Highway 17 and south of Summit Road. Several other stage lines were built as competitors, such as the San Jose Turnpike (1863), which follows the approximate route of present day Soquel San Jose Road. After realignment to increase the road width; many sections of the original stage route were cut off. These sections became side streets named with variations containing Old Turnpike. Some of these now dead end streets have retained the look of narrow stage coach roads.

SR 17 was opened in 1940, replacing several other modes of transportation, including the old Glenwood Highway from 1919 (which still exists in Glenwood), and the railroad which went all the way from Santa Cruz to San Francisco and Oakland. The railroad stopped operating in 1940 and the tunnels that it passed through were sealed soon after. Nearly all the tunnel entrances still exist, but are unusable as the tunnels themselves are collapsed. The rise in the use of automobiles made the railroads unprofitable. The city of Glenwood, founded by Charles C. Martin in 1851, gained notoriety for hot springs in the area. The Glenwood Highway, which passed through town, was deserted when the "New 17" was built, and the town became a ghost of its former self. The town has but one resident left, Mrs. Ed C. Koch, who is the great-granddaughter of the founder.

Parts of the original SR 17 lie underwater in Lexington Reservoir. When the reservoir was built, the highway was rerouted to higher ground, and the two towns along its path (Alma and Lexington) were abandoned. When the reservoir levels are extremely low, the old highway pavement is visible as well as some stone and concrete foundations of buildings.

Until the mid-1980s, SR 17 extended from its current southern terminus at State Route 1 in Santa Cruz through Oakland and across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to San Rafael. The roadway still exists (apart from the mile-long Cypress section in Oakland, destroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake) but parts have been redesignated. The section between Interstate 80 and US 101 in San Rafael was renumbered as an extension of Interstate 580. Prior to the redesignation, this part of SR 17 followed Richmond streets, including an expressway called Hoffman Boulevard, to the bridge; a freeway built to Interstate standards was completed in 1990 after the corridor became 580's northwestern leg. Additionally, SR 17 between Interstate 280 in San Jose and the freeway's new northern terminus in Oakland was re-designated as Interstate 880 later that year.

Before the freeway was built in Milpitas, Fremont, Hayward and Oakland, SR 17 followed what is now Old Oakland Road (San Jose), Main Street (Milpitas) and Warm Springs Boulevard (southern Fremont); from the Irvington section of Fremont, the route proceeded along what is now Fremont Boulevard, which becomes Alvarado Boulevard in Union City. From there, the route proceeded along Hesperian Boulevard in Hayward and Washington Avenue in San Leandro, joining with East 14th Street as it proceeded into Oakland. From Oakland, SR 17 would follow US 40 along San Pablo Avenue up to its split in Albany. SR 17 then followed what is now Interstate 580 over the San Rafael Bridge (formerly a ferry crossing), terminating at US 101 in San Rafael.

In 1990 the city of Scotts Valley approved redevelopment plans calling for improvements to the Santa's Village and Granite Creek ramp systems as well as proposals for a pedestrian overcrossing and Park and ride lot.