TOO VULNERABLE

Evening Post, Issue 86, 11 April 1936, Page 23

TOO VULNERABLE

COASTAL ROAD REJECTED

The United States military authorities apparently do not favour coast roads for defence purposes. Hopes have been entertained on the Pacific Coast' that the United States Government, on the grounds that such a road would be of great military value, would conic forward with assistance for a coastal highway from Eureka, in the north, down to San Francisco, but army engineers proved cool, deeming that the road would be of as much value to a hostile landing force as to a defending army.

In consequence of this attitude the project has been abandoned by the sponsoring body, the Eureka branch of the National Automobile Club. The opinion is still held, however, in the north that the highway will eventually be constructed, but it will be a responsibility of the State of California. It would connect all the coast terriI tory with San Francisco by the new bridge under construction across the Golden Gate, the entrance to San Francisco Harbour. The cost, however, of constructing a coast road is so great that there is no immediate prospect of the State doing anything in connection with the project. The great modern highway that runs the length of California is well inland, behind the ' coast ranges, touching the coast only where it comes out to connect up Los Angeles and Paradena. ,