Coast to avoid steep and unstable highlands created by Mendocino Triple Junction uplift. The highway follows Cottaneva Creek inland through redwood-forested mountainous terrain before terminating at US 101 just outside Leggett. History SR 1 has become famous worldwide, but the highway was signed as several other routes prior to 1964. When the road was first envisioned in the World War I era, California highways were referred to by either a highway name or a route number. The route numbers were used by state highway planners and the Legislature from 1915 until 1964, but were never posted on highways, referred to by the auto clubs or public, nor used on maps. The SR 1 designation was first assigned in 1939. Various portions of SR 1 have been posted and referred to by various names and numbers over the years. State construction of what became SR 1 started after the state's third highway bond issue passed before 1910. Segments initially constructed Eager for a direct coastal route between Ventura and Santa Barbara, civic boosters used locally raised funds to begin building the Rincon Sea Level Road in 1911. The route between the Ventura River and Carpinteria had been an unimproved route along small alluvial fan beaches that skirted coastal bluff rock outcroppings at low tide. Construction of the Southern Pacific Coast Line railroad had created a road flanked by riprap along this area. In order to make this part of the first coastal route for motorists driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, they paved the road and built wooden causeways where the route flooded from the ocean waves. Local funding ran out, but the newly formed State Highway Commission took over and completed the road in 1913. One of the most difficult routes to build was along the Big Sur coast. The state first approved building Route 56, or the Carmel-San Simeon Highway, to connect Big Sur to the rest of California in 1919. Federal funds were appropriated and in 1921 voters approved additional state funds. San Quentin State Prison set up three temporary prison camps to provide unskilled convict labor to help with road construction. One was set up by Little Sur River, one at Kirk Creek and a third was later established in the south at Anderson Creek. Inmates were paid 35 cents per day and had their prison sentences reduced in return. The route necessitated construction of 33