In 1934, the State of California began signing its routes. The route which in subsequent years corresponded with State Route 17 was signed as
State Route 13, and described as "Santa Cruz to Jct. US 101 at San Rafael, via San Jose, Mt. Eden, and Oakland." The route taken between Oakland and San Rafael is not described. Beginning in 1929, the segment from San Jose northward had been signed as US 101-E ("east"), branching off from US 101-W in San Jose.
Santa Cruz Mountains The earliest connection between Santa Cruz and San Jose was an old Native American foot trail. The first road that could be navigated by a wagon was a dirt toll road built by
Charlie McKiernan, known as "Mountain Charlie" by locals, some time around 1853. Portions of this road still exist as Mountain Charlie Road, to the west of Highway 17 and south of Summit Road. Several other stage lines were built as competitors, such as the San Jose Turnpike (1863), which follows the approximate route of present-day Soquel San Jose Road. After realignment to increase the road width; many sections of the original stage route were cut off. These sections became side streets named with variations containing Old Turnpike. Some of these now dead end streets have retained the look of narrow stage coach roads. SR 17 was opened in 1940, replacing several other modes of transportation, including the old Glenwood Highway from 1919 (which still exists in
Glenwood), and the railroad which went all the way from Santa Cruz to San Francisco and Oakland. The railroad stopped operating in 1940 and the tunnels that it passed through were sealed soon after. Nearly all the tunnel entrances still exist, but are unusable as the tunnels themselves have collapsed. The rise in the use of automobiles made the railroads unprofitable. The city of Glenwood, founded by
Charles C. Martin in 1851, gained notoriety for hot springs in the area. The Glenwood Highway, which passed through town, was deserted when the "New 17" was built, and the town became a ghost of its former self. The town's final resident, Mrs. Ed C. Koch, the great-granddaughter of the founder, died in 1992, and Glenwood is a
ghost town. Parts of the original SR 17 lie underwater in
Lexington Reservoir. When the reservoir was built, the highway was rerouted to higher ground, and the two towns along its path (Alma and Lexington) were abandoned. When the reservoir levels are extremely low, the old highway pavement is visible as well as some stone and concrete foundations of buildings.
East Bay SR 17 first appeared along the east shore of San Francisco Bay in the mid-1930s. The original route between San Jose and Oakland ran along the Old Oakland Road, Main Street (Milpitas) and Warm Springs Boulevard (southern Fremont) proceeding along what is now Fremont Boulevard, which becomes Alvarado Boulevard in Northern Fremont, before entering Union City. From there, the route proceeded along Hesperian Boulevard in Hayward, then into San Leandro via East 14th Street to Davis. It then went west on Davis to Maitland Drive along the southern edge of the Oakland Municipal Airport and across Bay Farm Island to the Bay Farm Island Bridge into Alameda. In Alameda it went via Clay, High, Santa Clara, and Webster to the
Posey Tube. SR 17 went through the Posey Tube into Oakland along Harrison Street to 14th, and west on 14th to Broadway where it terminated at a junction with US 40 and SR 24. Following the completion of the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in late 1936, SR 17 was re-routed. Instead of turning west at Davis Street in San Leandro, it was continued along East 14th Street into Oakland. At 44th Avenue it turned west, leading to a new diagonal connection to East 12th Street. SR 17 then followed East 12th northward to 14th Avenue, then one block on 14th to East 8th Street, becoming 8th Street into downtown Oakland. It continued west on 8th, picking up a concurrency with Business Route US 50 at Broadway. Both routes continued on 8th to Cypress Street which became an elevated viaduct entering the Bay Bridge Distribution Structure (
"The Maze"). SR 17 terminated here at its junction with US 40 (Eastshore Highway) and US 50 (38th Street). In 1947, work began on a new freeway through Oakland to replace the street routing of SR 17. It was finished in segments, finishing in 1958 with the completion of the double-decked
Cypress Structure leading into the MacArthur Maze. The new freeway was called the "Eastshore Freeway", continuous with a planned new freeway north of the Maze to replace the old Eastshore Highway. In 1958, the freeway south of the Maze was renamed the "Nimitz Freeway", in honor of WWII Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz. With the completion of the
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in 1956, as well as the first segment of the
Eastshore Freeway north of the Maze, SR 17 was extended northward along the new freeway in a concurrency with US 40. SR 17 left the freeway at the Hoffman Boulevard exit (thereafter popularly called the "Hoffman Split") and proceeded along city streets through Richmond to the San Rafael bridge. It went via Hoffman, Cutting, and Standard Avenue up to the bridge. It crossed the bridge into San Rafael, terminating at a junction with US 101. In 1984 the segment of SR 17 from Interstate 280 in San Jose to the Maze (by then known as the "MacArthur Maze") in Oakland was renumbered as
I-880, and the portion of SR 17 from the MacArthur Maze to San Rafael was renumbered as part of
I-580. SR 17 was thereby reduced to its current length. ==Major intersections==