On this day in 1861, the California State Assembly greenlit a new infrastructure project to carve a toll road through the Newhall Pass, birthing the main thoroughfare for travel into the Santa Clarita Valley.

On May 7, 1861 the California State Assembly authorized Charles H. Brindley, State Senator Andres Pico and former Assemblyman James R. Vineyard a 20 year contract “to build and construct a turnpike road from the ex-Mission of San Fernando, across the San Fernando Mountain and across the Cajon Hill and through the Cajon Pass, to the Arroyo de Santa Clara in Los Angeles County.”

The Cajon Pass referred to in the legislation is not the modern-day Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County, but the “box” canyon from which the new San Fernando Pass (also called the Newhall Pass) would be cut.

The steep, difficult canyon was made easier to cross with the deep slot-like road through the pass, cut under the direction of Brindley, Pico, and Vineyard, and in return, the three were authorized by the state to maintain the turnpike and collect tolls.

The road was to be finished within one year after the passage of this Act, or by May 7, 1862.

However, later in 1861, Edward Beale was appointed federal Surveyor General of California and Nevada by President Abraham Lincoln, and challenged Pico’s loyalty to the new president as someone who had been involved in Mexican rule of California.

In 1863, Beale was awarded control of the “San Fernando Pass,” and later expanded it, largely through hiring Chinese immigrants as laborers.

Beale’s Cut continued to be used as a transportation passage until the Newhall Tunnel opened in 1910, which in turn was later demolished and developed into modern-day Sierra Highway.

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