Strolling southward across a prestressed concrete bridge spanning California State Route 4, Central California Traction 1501 is a split second from rejoining the street trackage on B Street in Stockton. Notably, the shared auto and rail corridor just north of the bridge stretches six hundred some-odd feet in length while the succeeding segment continues over several additional city blocks until arriving at the doorstep of BNSF Railway's Mormon Yard.

The roadway necessitating the establishment of the aforementioned bridge served as a hot-button issue for the community for many years. Known to Stocktonians simply as the Crosstown Freeway, city leaders and developers as early as the 1960s envisioned the formation of a thoroughfare linking Interstate 5 and Highway 99 in town. By the early 1970s, the project was approved and construction began in haste until Governor Jerry Brown suspended the venture in 1975. The Crosstown was half-finished and was considered a monumental eyesore for the city, eventually earning the nickname, "the freeway to nowhere". Political circumstances enabled the project to commence once again in the latter half of the 1980s and attaining full completion by September 1993. Without significantly disrupting CCT operations, an overpass was built in 1992 to carry the railroad over the Crosstown Freeway. In the end, the roadway dramatically altered the appearance of Downtown Stockton.

[www.flickr.com]