The fastest, most direct route from Sacramento to San Francisco would be along I-80 past Davis and Vacaville, through Vallejo and Berkeley to the Bay Bridge, a route that Butko identifies primarily as “3rd Generation” Lincoln Highway. We decide we will be historic for one last time and follow the path (if not the pavement) of the original Lincoln by turning south via Galt and Stockton, swinging west by the Altamont Pass (where windmills twirl on the odd treeless hills that look carpeted) and approaching the Bay Bridge from the south. Interstate 99 is congested and dull.
Jarrett tries to get some shots of vineyards along the way.
Our long lunch has delayed our entry into the city a bit, and we know we have to cross the bridge before 8 pm because it will be closed then so some “seismic safety work” can be done on one certain section of the roadway over the long Labor Day weekend. (Bridge engineers can check out the details here.)
Originally on the Lincoln Highway, one would have crossed the bay on a car ferry, but I can’t find any such service today. There are passenger ferries, but nothing that seems ready to take unexpected vehicles over the water. We have to take the bridge.
I am driving, Jarrett and Bob both shooting out the right-side windows, and Bob is ready to co-pilot me to California Street, having scoped out all the pertinent routes through downtown San Francisco on his trusty old AAA map.
We pull over near the intersection of California Street and Park Presidio Boulevard to find the next-to-last surviving concrete Lincoln Highway Marker from 1928. It’s beside a bus stop, and it’s probably still there because no one has ever cared enough to move or remove it. We grab a few shots.
We end up considering the markers as old friends along the way. They can be reassuring and inspiring when you think you’re hopelessly lost. They somehow still connect us to the 1920s and the Boy Scouts who helped put these markers at pertinent points all along the route. They seem to deserve respect simply for surviving.
This penultimate marker is mentioned on the penultimate page of Butko’s book. And in that same paragraph, he also describes where to find the final marker, and that’s where we’re headed.