As a child, road maps drew me in. The lines on the map fascinated me, linking places I had never been to or heard of together. Numbers linked with the lines created journeys for discovery. In 1926, the federal government came up with a plan to number highways to replace names – in this case, the Pacific Highway – in order to establish an integrated system of roads throughout the country. The so-called “Federal system” did not mean the federal government built or maintained the roads. That process remained the responsibility of local and state governments. Highways simply gained numbers and signs so auto drivers could determine their location.

Most of the historical hype surrounding highways in Oregon goes to the Columbia River Gorge Highway, with reason. A highway created where none traversed prior. A road mixing engineering marvels with the magic of the Gorge. Yet, the main highway to evolve from the rush of building public roads in the 1910-1920’s shined farther to the west in the Willamette Valley – the Pacific Highway.

PACIFIC HIGHWAY

As with the Columbia Gorge project and its lower Columbia River continuation, the development of the Pacific Highway owes much of its origin to Samuel Hill, the former lawyer and son-in-law to James J. Hill, the force behind the Great Northern and Northern Pacific rail networks. Sam rallied the public in favor of the Good Roads movement arising late in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Roads did exist linking communities within the Willamette Valley and on to California to the south and the Puget Sound to the north. But the roads were far from easy to travel. In many cases, the “road” was really more of a trail. Weather and topography made the way hardly a proper route to carry commercial goods upon, let alone travelers.

TRAIL BEGINNINGS

As settlers came into the valley replacing indigenous natives conveniently moved to the Coast, old trails became makeshift roads. These paths went down both the east and west sides of the valley. Oregon City served as an early fulcrum point. The busiest trail led south down the west side en route to the goldfields of California – the Applegate Trail.

The Applegate Trail originally developed as an alternative to the final dangers of the Columbia River’s rapids at the Cascades. Using the well-known path south to California connecting the Willamette Valley through the Rogue Valley, that trail ran off to the east near the present state boundaries of Oregon and California towards lower Klamath Lake to cross the Black Rock desert of Nevada. The trail used the California Trail which turned off the Oregon Trail at Fort Hall in Idaho. Emigrants heading on the Applegate then went as far as the Humboldt River to what is now Rye Patch Reservoir.

While not as popular as the main Oregon Trail, 1852 saw some 3,000 people coming west on the Applegate. Many did not come as far north as the Willamette Valley preferring to settle open lands in southwestern Oregon. The lure of the goldfields kept the path well used. Msny men traveled south to make a quick fortune before returning to their families in Oregon.

Interstate 5 travels a route today roughly paralleling the Applegate from a point south of Eugene to Ashland where the emigrant road veered off to the east. The Applegate Trail followed even older Native American paths known as the Siskiyou Trail.

IRON HORSES ONTO THE SCENE

As Oregon became more settled, projects came up to better connect to other parts of the country via railroads. The best-known of these early ventures led by Ben Holladay was the Oregon and California Railroad.

The Oregon Central Railroad was funded by a group of Californians associated with California & Oregon Railroad. In 1868, they looked to Holladay for guidance. Building out from the east bank of Portland, first to Oregon City and beyond to New Era twenty miles to the south in December 1869.

Reorganizing as the Oregon and California Railroad, Holladay’s enterprise built as far south as Roseburg by 1872. The line finally reached the Oregon-California border by the end of 1887.

Two more valley length lines came onto the scene before Henry Ford changed the transportation habits of America. The Oregon Electric extended down mostly along the east side of the valley to Eugene. This line fell into the world of James J. Hill and the Great Northern Railway world. The second electric line was Southern Pacific’s Red Electric trains.

ERA OF GOOD ROADS AND SAM HILL

Sam Hill is best known for his castle-like museum sitting high above the Columbia River ten miles east of The Dalles. He served as a lawyer for James J. Hill and his railway empire emanating west from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sam and his boss were not directly related though Sam did marry the boss’s eldest daughter Mary.

Besides being a successful lawyer, Sam Hill proved a strong vocal advocate for the “Good Roads Movement” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He brought that advocacy with him when he moved to Seattle just before 1900. In September 1899, after a meeting in Spokane, the Washington State Good Roads Association formed with Hill elected as president. After years of constant lobbying, Washington State organized a state highway department in 1905.

sam and the pacific highway

Sam Hill would move south to Portland where he became a proponent of the Columbia River Gorge Highway. His Columbia project remained dear to his heart. But even more importantly, Hill helped lead the fight to develop a road to link the main cities of the West Coast together. The Pacific Highway dream finally coming to fruition in 1924. He exclaimed, “If I live long enough, I am going to see a highway built through British Columbia down our own coastline, clear to Mexico and it’s going to be a hard surfaced road.”

At Hill’s own expense, at the northern terminus of the Pacific Highway leading to Vancouver, BC, a large arch went up to honor over 100 years of peace between Canada and the United States. The arch dedicated in 1921 and again when Queen Mary of Romania visited Hill on the way to Maryhill in 1926.

As Sam declared, “Good roads are more than my hobby; they are my religion.”

OREGON’S PACIFIC HIGHWAY

macadam was pacific highway’s original route south

Looking at old highway maps, I was a bit surprised to see the original Pacific Highway (Highway 1) running down Macadam Avenue along the route traversed by Oregon 43 today. The so-called “Oswego Highway” ran through Lake Oswego to West Linn crossing the Willamette River to Oregon City. The highway then followed the route of Oregon 99E south to Canby and Salem. More on that route below.

The official State Act naming the Pacific Highway and its route came into being in 1917: 3. The Pacific Highway from the Multnomah County line through Oswego, Oregon City and
Canby in Clackamas County, thence through Marion and Linn Counties, to a junction with the Highway at Junction City.

When the federal government instituted numbers in place of names for the federalized highway system in 1927, the Oswego Highway continued as US 99. Maps continued to show this through the 1930’s. By 1939, chaos reigned. There was three US 99’s if one sort or another – US 99, US 99E and US 99W. Probably in the interest of simplicity, ODOT, in order to stem the confusion, the Oswego Highway lost its federal numbering going back to being a state route bearing the number it holds today – Oregon 43.

EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE

pacific east

A 1918 ODOT map shows the proposed route of the Pacific Highway going south from Portland on the east side of the Willamette River. The 1920 map, however, shows the Oswego Route instead of the east side. Looking further into a 1939 ODOT map, the Oswego and East Side routes are shown.

Minutes from ODOT seem to show the 99E route through Milwaukie first comes into being in 1931 with an official acceptance of the route through Clackamas County coming three years later.

In 1937, the 99E designation officially gained a name and a number. The legislature makes in official two years later: Pacific Highway East. From the Oregon – Washington state line at the Columbia River interstate bridge north of Portland, southerly via Portland, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Salem, Albany and Harrisburg to a Junction the Pacific Highway and Pacific Highway West at or near the north city limit of Junction City.

or 99e

The route taken today by Oregon 99E – given to the highway after Interstate 5 came onto the scene and the federalized “99” number retired – is very similar to the original route with minor changes in some areas. The route through Salem becoming Business 99E when the By-Pass 99E throughfare – precursor to I-5 – developed. Further south, the original Pacific Highway went through the little town of Jefferson on the Santiam River. That section abandoned in order to make the route straighter through Linn County, today noted as Oregon 164.

capitOl highway

A big hurdle to overcome in the construction of roads was finance. Originally, local communities and counties were responsible for financing, approving routes and contracting the work to be done. As the 1910’s wore on, the States go into the act by infusing money and overseeing, through newly organized highway departments – Oregon’s got its start in 1913. A year later, the road became part of the new Pacific Highway system.

The original Capitol Highway left downtown Portland using Terwilliger Boulevard – Barbur Boulevard still being a railway at the time. The route turned uphill at Slavin – the only part of Slavin existing today is the section below I-5 – to run over the West Hills through today’s little business community of Hillsdale to the small community of Bertha, on the west edge of Hillsdale.

leaving portland

The road crossed via a viaduct over the rails of the Southern Pacific Red Electric line. This line ran west towards Beaverton along the route traversed today by the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, Oregon 10. Sidenote – “Bertha” was the name of the SP Oregon manager’s wife. The community had been known as “Summit” prior, but there were already towns in Oregon with that name. The area was also known as “Hillsdale”. Not wanting to confuse riders heading farther out to Hillsboro, the stop was signed “Bertha”.

Next, came the little town of Multnomah. Here, another viaduct was built in 1927 to cross the Oregon Electric rail line – the OE was part of the Great Northern family. That line ran down the Willamette Valley on mainly the east side. The rails crossed the Willamette to the south on a bridge at Boone’s Ferry en route to Eugene near where Interstate 5 crosses today.

Capitol Highway then climbed the north edge of Mount Silvania. Next, following the course of Taylor’s Ferry Road to its crossing over the Tualatin River just southwest of Tigard. The road continued along the path used by OR 99W through Newberg and Dundee to Dayton. Here, the route headed south to cross the Willamette on the Wheatland Ferry. Over to the east side of the river, the route headed the final miles south to Salem via the Wheatland and then River Roads.

pacific west

99W started out in 1917 as the West Side Highway, number 28. Communities up and down the valley dotted both sides of the Willamette. The solution, with a little bit of political pressure, was – like the rail lines – two roads up and down the valley on both sides.

The proposed route took the highway through the Multnomah County line through Washington County and Yamhill
County by way of Hillsboro, Forest Grove, McMinnville to Dallas, Monmouth and Independence in Polk County; to Corvallis and Monroe in Benton County and through Eugene to the north line of Douglas County.

In 1920, the route ran through Dallas to Rickreal. Two years later, Dallas became bypassed to make the route south from McMinnville, a straight shot down the east side of the Eola Hills directly to Rickreal and Monmouth. The highway Independence about the same time going directly south from Monmouth to Corvallis.

1937 saw the official name changing from the West Side Highway to West Side Pacific Highway. In southwest Portland, the rail line of the Southern Pacific “Red Electric” was deeded over to the city in 1930. Two years later, Barbur Boulevard became a reality, though it was not until 1935 the road was completed to Tigard. The new road alleviated traffic woes on the “scenic” Terwilliger Boulevard. That same year, 99W was re-routed from Capital Highway to the newer – and at four-lane, bigger – road.

INTERSTATE FIVE AND THE DOUBLE NINE TODAY

After 1945, ODOT determined the two 99 routes would become thoroughfares when the opportunity to purchase lands and rebuild highways came along. Thoroughfares meant increased lanes to speed traffic, and they also decreased access. They did not do away completely with traffic lights, however. In 1956, the Interstate began with the Federal Highway Aid Act. This federal legislation standardized highways to become included within the interstate system – access was controlled, federal signage adopted, and at-grade intersections were done away with (no traffic lights).

I-5 was competed in 1966 with the construction of the Marquam Bridge in Portland, a bridge underbuilt for the future. A double-decked bridge built for the traffic of its time with a couple off-ramps leading to a proposed Mt Hood Freeway defeated in the 1970’s. Another freeway interchange on this bridge would really have tied up this already overworked crossing. The ghost ramps were modified in 1992 unlike the ghost ramps on the Fremont Bridge which remain leading to the non-existent Fremont Freeway.

There are large parts of the 99’s built in the thoroughfare style. OR 99E is multilane from Portland to Oregon City and beyond to Aurora with small interruptions. OR 99W features mulitlanes from Portland to Newberg and sections beyond – Newberg-Dundee, McMinnville, Corvallis. From Junction City to Eugene, OR 99 rolls in on multilanes as well.

And of course, anything Oregon can do, so can California. US 99 split into west and east routes through the Sacramento Valley. Interstate 5 replicates the west side for the most part while the east side is memorialized in California route 99.

Much as I would like to think Toto’s lyrics for the song 99 are about the highway, they are about George Lucas’ early movie THX1138