Route) was steep and narrow. Another possible route, through Piru Canyon to the west, was rejected because of a proposal for a dam. This route was later chosen for the Ridge Route Alternate, but had to be abandoned in the 1970s due to the construction of Pyramid Lake. The route chosen was direct from Saugus to Gorman, over the top of the ridge for many miles. Due to cost and drainage concerns, and a desire to reduce altering the terrain, the road was built with 697 curves, high in the mountains. Construction on the Ridge Route, officially considered to run from Castaic Junction (west of Saugus on the road to Ventura) to the bottom of the grade at Grapevine, began in 1914. The highway was one of the earliest projects completed by the California Highway Commission. Horse-drawn scrapers were used. The new road, designed with an ideal grade of 6 percent (but with several 7 percent grades, including at Grapevine,) cut the distance by over the Tejon Pass Route or over the Midway Route. A speed limit of was enforced between Castaic and Quail Lake, making the trip from Los Angeles to Bakersfield take about 12 hours. On the Ridge Route between Castaic Junction and Grapevine, the curves added up to about 109.5 complete circles, with a minimum radius of . The unpaved road, which had cost $450,000 (about $ in ), opened in October 1915. In addition to being part of the state highway system (as a portion of the unsigned Sacramento-Los Angeles Legislative Route 4), the road was part of the National Park to Park Highway, a privately designated auto trail, and became part of US 99 in 1926. The continuation south via Saugus and the Newhall Tunnel towards Los Angeles, also part of Route 4, was added to the state highway system in 1917. The San Francisco Chronicle called the new route "one of the most remarkable engineering feats accomplished by the State Highway Commission. It is Southern California's Magnus Opus [sic] in mountain highway construction." It was also credited with stopping efforts to split California into two states, by linking its two halves over the rugged terrain separating them. Work on paving the Ridge Route with thick reinforced concrete began in 1917, but was delayed until 1919 by the U.S. entry into World War I. During work on the road, traffic was detoured via Mint and