Golden Gate Bridge Freeway
Golden Gate Bridge Freeway
An overhead view of the constructed portion.
Length: 2 miles (San Francisco), about 35 miles (entire routing)
Routing in SF: From the Golden Gate Bridge east to Lombard
Street
Construction: Unknown
Route Numbering: US 101 (1954-), CA 1 between Park Presidio Freeway and the
Bridge (1954-), I-280 between Park Presidio Freeway and the Bridge (1947,
unconfirmed arbitrary designation), I-480/CA 480 between Park Presidio Freeway
and Lombard Street (1954-1990, unsigned)
The Golden Gate Bridge Freeway is one of several stub freeways in San Francisco's inadequate and incomplete freeway system. Originally intended to have been extended to Van Ness Avenue as part of the grandiose building spree, construction of this section was dependant on the completion of the Central Freeway. When that did not occur, this portion of highway (as well as the Park Presidio Freeway) were left orphaned from the rest of the system.
Currently, because through traffic continues south on the Park Presidio Freeway/Boulevard (CA 1), this portion of the Freeway acts as a spur to one of the last original routings of US 101 left, Lombard/Van Ness Avenue, and is also known as Doyle Drive. The section heading right into the Bridge, as well as the Bridge itself, was originally to have been part of I-280, which was originally designed to be half of an I-280/680 loop around the Bay Area, but this was rejected in 1947.
Until the demolition and decomissioining of Route 480, Lombard Street and the Golden Gate Bridge Freeway were part of unsigned CA 480; it is unclear whether I-480 would've continued south on the Park Presidio to reconnect with the Western Freeway (arbitrary I-80) but a 1967 Rand McNally map shows this as a possible routing.
Sources: Cahighways.org, 1967 Rand McNally Texaco atlas, Kurumi.com, http://www.presidiotrust.gov/.
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