The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), also known as California State Route 1, is one of the most iconic roads in the United States, renowned for its breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean and rugged coastline. This scenic highway stretches over 650 miles from Dana Point in Orange County in Southern California to Mendocino County in Northern California, offering travelers unparalleled vistas and a quintessential Californian road trip experience. While some suggest that PCH runs from Mexico to Canada, that is mistaken. U.S. Route 101 continues north from California, running along the coast through Oregon and Washington, up to the Olympic Peninsula. That said, it is still the longest state route in California and the second-longest in the US after Montana Highway 200. The story of its construction is as dramatic and intricate as the landscape it traverses.

The origins of the Pacific Coast Highway date back to the early 20th century, when the automobile was becoming an essential part of American life. The idea for a coastal highway was initially conceived to connect the state’s isolated coastal communities and improve access to California’s scenic beauty. The concept gained traction in the 1910s and 1920s, and construction began in earnest in the 1930s, to provide jobs during the Great Depression.

“It took decades to get the highway built,” Carina Monica Montoya told the Los Angeles Times. Montoya is the author of, “Pacific Coast Highway In Los Angeles County” (The History Press, 2014). 

The construction of the PCH was an engineering marvel, given the challenging terrain it had to navigate. The road had to be carved out of steep cliffs, cross numerous rivers, and be supported by bridges spanning deep ravines. One of the most significant and iconic portions of the highway, the Big Sur section, presented formidable challenges. This stretch of the road, which runs between San Simeon and Carmel, required extensive blasting and drilling into the rugged coastal mountains. The effort was spearheaded by the California Division of Highways (now CalTrans), with a workforce comprising both state employees and workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal program.

Key figures in the design and construction of the PCH included engineers and architects who had to innovate continuously to address the formidable natural obstacles. One notable engineer was John D. Isaacs, a prominent builder who contributed to the design and construction of several key bridges along the PCH, including the famous Bixby Creek Bridge. His innovative approach to bridge engineering helped overcome the difficulties presented by the steep canyons and coastal bluffs.

The Pacific Coast Highway took decades to complete fully, with different sections being opened to the public at various times. The Big Sur segment, for example, was officially completed in 1937 after nearly 18 years of labor. The total cost of constructing the highway is difficult to pinpoint precisely, given its piecemeal development, but it ran into tens of millions of dollars—an immense sum at the time.

Several colorful characters also play a role in the highway’s history. The Pacific Coast Highway might not exist today if May Rindge, a resolute landowner, had succeeded in her long battle against the county. Since at least the 1890s, a primitive road, often submerged at high tide, hugged the rocky coast between Santa Monica and Malibu, passing under a natural arch and ending at a locked gate on Rindge’s 17,000-acre ranch.

As the owner of Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit, Rindge was determined to protect her property. She and her late husband had long fought to keep homesteaders off their land. In 1906, she even forced the Southern Pacific Railroad to divert its Santa Barbara line around Malibu and through the San Fernando Valley.

In 1907, when the county proposed extending the coastal road through Malibu, Rindge posted armed guards at the entrances to her ranch and contested the county’s power of eminent domain in court. A stalemate ensued for years, but the road’s prospects improved in the early 1920s when it was included in the planned Roosevelt Highway. In 1923, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the county’s right to appropriate the land for the highway, and in 1925, a superior court judge granted the county title to the right-of-way in exchange for $107,289, finally ending the dispute.

The book “The King and Queen of Malibu: The True Story of the Battle for Paradise” by David K. Randall (2016) tells the story of Ringe and a wonderful history of Malibu.

Today, the Pacific Coast Highway is one of the most famous and iconic strips of road in the world. Featured in countless commercials as well as movies and TV shoots, sections of PCH are immediately recognizable. Of course, it helps a lot that the highway in in such close proximity to legions of DPs (Directors of Photography) who live in Los Angeles and work in commercials and film. Shooting on the highway is an easy day trip from LA and Hollywood, although it can be difficult to get permits to film on the highway given it is such a busy working road.

That said, the highway faces significant challenges due to climate change and coastal erosion. Rising sea levels and increased storm activity are accelerating the natural erosion processes along California’s coast. This has led to frequent landslides and road closures, particularly in the Big Sur region. One notable event was the massive landslide in 2017 at Mud Creek, which buried a section of the highway under 40 feet of debris, closing it for over a year and requiring extensive repairs. A timelapse of the landslide produced by the United States Geological Service can be seen here. 

The New Yorker ran a piece on the concerns about the highway’s future viability as a means to travel long distances along the coast.

The Washington Post wrote back in 2021, “the engineering folly of a road built on sheer cliffs has meant that closures are annual events — the “whens,” not “ifs” — for the people and the economy it supports.”

The most recent slide to afflict the region took place in April 2024 following heavy rains, when large chunks of the road broke off, tumbling down a cliff and into the ocean near Rock Creek Bridge. Safety officials closed off about 40 miles of road as crews worked to assess the damage and stabilize the road.

Rosanna Xia, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, masterfully chronicles the problems facing PCH and the California coast in general due to climate change and erosion in her book California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline. 

Although the Pacific Coast Highway remains one of the greatest road trip routes of all time, the challenges in maintaining its full length are significant for the state and its residents. Despite its enduring popularity, the highway often operates in sections due to frequent closures and repairs caused by natural disasters like landslides, erosion, and wildfires. These ongoing issues demand substantial resources and effort to keep the entire highway operational, making its full-length service a constant struggle.

Still, it remains a pretty excellent place to take a drive. As the Boss once put it, roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair.