El Camino Real
El Camino Real (Spanish for royal route or royal route ) is the name of the 970 km long historical route that connected the Spanish mission stations in California .
Today, the part of the route between the San Diego de Alcalá Mission in San Diego and the San Francisco Solano Mission in Sonoma, which is located in the US state of California, is so called. In fact, the trail originally began on the Baja California peninsula in what is now Mexico (at the Misión San Bruno in San Bruno )
At the time of its longest extension, the route connected 21 mission stations, three settlements ( pueblos ) and four garrisons ( presidios ).
history
Between 1683 and 1834, Spanish missionaries founded a number of religious bases along the coast of present-day California , always a day's ride (about 50 km) apart. (See also main article: Spanish missions ). There was a custom of the padres to distribute mustard seeds on their rides , so that the path was lined with yellow mustard plants.
List of missions and founding years
Map with all coordinates: The route today
The following streets, which roughly follow the course of the historical route, form today's "El Camino Real"
- Interstate 5 , from the Mexican border to Anaheim
- Anaheim Boulevard , Harbor Boulevard , California State Route 72, and Whittier Boulevard , from Anaheim to Los Angeles
- US Highway 101 , from Los Angeles to San Jose
- California State Route 82 , from San Jose to San Francisco
- Interstate 280 , in San Francisco
- US Route 101, from San Francisco to Novato
- California State Route 37 , from Novato to Sears Point
- California State Route 121 , from Sears Point to Sonoma
- California State Route 12 , in Sonoma
