A closer look at a weird old fence
On my trips around the South Bay, I've noticed a bunch of weird things out the window of my car. Naturally, I am unable to adequately check them out when zipping by at 50 mph on an expressway. It isn't until I purposely come back on foot that the true depth of the strangeness can be understood.
Here's a nice oddity I always wondered about. From the expressway, you can see this really old and rickety fence just plopped there for no apparent reason. I thought maybe it was an onramp or something like that once upon a time, but that seems like a poor place for such a thing, considering there's one just a few hundred feet behind this spot.
Also, check out those arrows. In the distance, you can see that the bridge is far wider that it needs to be for the road (Central Expressway) as it is now, off to the left. Closer to the camera, is that... a double-yellow line?
It sure looks like one.
Okay, there's no question. This was the middle of some roadway at some point in the past. That strange bridge rail even makes sense now.
Viewed from the side, there's no doubt.
Yep, something used to go through here.
There are a bunch of dubious twists and turns of different roads in that part of Santa Clara. If I'm not mistaken, this was Kifer Road before Central Expressway came through in the 60s. That leads me to suggest that double-yellow paint has just been chilling there for at least 50 years.
I never would have suspected this even from repeated in-car observations. Sometimes, you just have to get out and really look at something to figure out what's going on there.