The Route of The Pipeline

When the pipe crossed a stream, they built a trestle like this one. The stream here is Lewis Creek.

The pipeline stretched 104 miles across two mountain ranges. A pipeline this long had never been built before- anywhere. And oil had never been pumped over mountains as high as these (2568 feet above sea level).

Lighthouse Avenue at Private Bolio Road- the end of the pipeline, right near the site of the Great Fire

The pipeline started at the corner of what is now Private Bolio Road and Lighthouse Avenue in New Monterey. It runs down Pacific Street, then it runs through Munras to Fremont Street, and goes straight down Fremont all the way to Seaside.

Pacific Street in Monterey, path of the pipeline

It runs underneath a bunch of neighborhoods in Seaside, and crosses onto Fort Ord just a little south of the Broadway Gate. In fact, there used to be a gate there called Pipeline Gate, which was later renamed to Watkins Gate, after the fire.

It continues across Fort Ord and comes out where Highway 68 crosses the Salinas River.

Spanning Lewis Creek, in Priest Valley

From there, it runs down the Salinas Valley, crosses into Bitterwater Canyon, through Metz Canyon, and runs south along Lewis Creek into the Priest Valley, and then into Worthan Canyon, and finally, Coalinga.

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