California Roads - US 101 - Palo Alto-San Francisco

US 101, Palo Alto to San Francisco



NB signs framed by NB offramp signs on Exits 403 and 406.


Exit 419 featured the Western Exterminator hunting a mouse with a knife and fork. Why did the mouse have weapons? It's gone now, so we'll never know.


I'm surprised to see exit numbers old enough to be button copy but not on a separate tab. Were these an alternate format of the 1971 button copy experiment, or were these the first implementation of modern exit numbers? I'm inclined to think the latter.


The NB onramp from Millbrae Ave. gets entangled in the SFO airport ramps.


Continuing northbound, San Francisco Airport is actually in San Bruno, conveniently located to serve San Jose as well. (San Jose has already moved well past San Francisco in population, and the metro areas have grown together sufficiently that they can't be compared to each other.) The last 3 photos are courtesy Lou Corsaro. I tried taking the first of his myself, but the sign on the left has been hit and is now missing half its panel and all of its legend, so you get my second photo as a result.


Do not adjust your dictionary, the first sign named an English geographical feature in a Spanish way. The 3rd photo includes the Exit 424 ramp sign and all of these are SB.


Speaking of ramp signs, this is on Exit 423B, US 101 SB to I-380 WB.


The SB entrance from San Bruno Ave. merges with the ramp from I-380 EB and the US 101 exit to SFO, and this is its last decision point.


South San Francisco, the industrial city! THE industrial city! Accept no substitutes. Sorry, Pittsburgh. First photo courtesy Lou Corsaro.


I got my own nighttime sign photos, but not with the hillside backdrop that let me keep the previous caption.


Continuing north into San Francisco. The 4th St. exit is along I-80, which US 101 "turns into" if you don't exit the freeway.


SB photos entering from Van Ness Ave. and exiting toward I-280 at Exit 431. Van Ness Ave. meets US 101 on the short Central Freeway, which was supposed to extend north to Doyle Dr. and the Golden Gate Bridge as a seamless connection. Many seams now. The second sign was once a normal newish sign until it was graffitied on, forcing all new legend to be stuck on (and adding a state-named shield to the mix). The last sign is the left of two on either side of the Exit 431 ramp, each barely mounted above the height of the railing.


Had the Central Freeway been built, this reconstruction would likely have started decades earlier. In 2014, Doyle Dr. was finally being reconstructed and significantly widened and modernized in its transformation to Presidio Pkwy. Of the four new "tunnels" (really just covered decks over the freeway) in the final condition, only the SB western tunnel was open to traffic, so both directions were shoehorned in there as work continued.


The EB tunnel is being built for 4 lanes and a shoulder, so it could squeeze 5 lanes in a reversible configuration to work with rush hour or weekend traffic flows. The final condition only has 3 WB lanes, which is exactly what you see here, but EB doubled relative to this with an auxiliary lane between interchanges.


Speaking of interchanges, construction of the future NB roadway continues north into the CA 1 interchange. The last photo is the future NB ramp to CA 1 SB.


Lincoln Blvd. SB under the work zone just east of CA 1. All of US 101 NB is being poured using wooden forms, which doesn't feel the sturdiest from below but it clearly all worked out. Looking east, the NB lanes will someday look like the finished SB ones.


Lincoln Blvd. turns east and parallels US 101. The first photo looks west as US 101 exits the SB tunnel, backed by the Golden Gate. The second photo looks east from there at construction of the remaining tunnels to the east, with US 101 diverted around them on a temporary roadway.


Another view of the future tunnels from the northeast along bayfront Mason St.


More Mason St. construction views from west to south, with the latter two photos at Stilwell Hall, a former aviation barracks for Fort Point. Those are some tall wooden columns.

Continue north onto the Golden Gate Bridge
Continue north to Golden Gate Bridge side views
Back south on US 101
Back to US 101 main page


Exit 422 to S F Intl Airport
Exit 423B to I-380
Exit 431 to I-280
Exit 433B to I-80
Exit 438 to CA 1
See more of San Francisco
Back to California Roads
Back to Roads