Highway 1

State Highway 1 (officially "California State Route 1") is the longest state highway in California, running near the Pacific coast for the entire northwest-southeast length of the state. It enters Santa Cruz County from Monterey County, crossing the Pajaro River in the southeast near Watsonville, and exits to San Mateo County in the northeast past Waddell Creek. The highway roughly follows the route of the first European explorers to pass through the area that is now Santa Cruz County, the Spanish Portolá expedition of 1769. Beginning in the late 1940s, Highway 1 from the Monterey County line to the Highway 17 junction in Santa Cruz was expanded into a 4-lane freeway. Then, in 1956, a new "beach bypass" extended from the end of the freeway at the Hwy. 17 junction to Mission Street, "bypassing" downtown Santa Cruz. From that point the highway travels to the city limit on Mission Street. From Santa Cruz north, before being named Mission Street, it was simply "the coast road". A few older sections, now bypassed by the highway, retain the name "Coast Road", as shown on the Google Maps detail at right. The state also gave the Central Coast portion of Highway 1 the name "Cabrillo Highway", which makes no historical sense and is rarely used by locals.

• "Coast Road" in The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture, 4th edition, page 64, 285.

Highway 1 is the only state highway that originates elsewhere on both ends and passes through Santa Cruz County. Five highways originate in Santa Cruz County and pass out of it: Highway 9, Highway 17, Highway 35, Highway 129, and Highway 152. One begins and ends within the county: Highway 236.