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Anyone travelling to Baja California and wishing to explore its destinations will find themselves driving along the MX1 highway, which runs the entire length of the peninsula from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas. This route passes through towns, villages, and vast unpopulated areas.
This road offers travellers the breathtaking spectacle of the desert in all its forms: ancient and enigmatic cacti, the rare Cirios of the central desert, the stunning blue sea at Bahia Conception, and the Sierra de la Giganta, whose rocks reveal a palette of browns, vibrant and delicate greens, and shades of orange, red, and pink as you draw closer.
This road, which traverses a beautiful and largely untamed land, required immense effort and time to complete. Imagining how challenging travel must have been before its construction, we wanted to pay tribute to it with this brief journey through time and space, exploring the history of its creation.
The MX1 Highway: From Jesuit dirt paths to the long stretch of asphalt connecting Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas
The transpeninsular highway was a vision brought to life by President Luis Echeverría, a pivotal figure in the development of Baja California. During his presidency, Echeverría invested an enormous sum of 1.108 billion pesos to preserve, rebuild, and construct federal roads, aiming to boost the economic development of Mexico’s rural areas.
Completed in December 1973, this monumental project stretches 1,708 kilometres from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas, connecting the two most distant municipalities of southern Baja California with a single paved route. It marked a decisive step in integrating the peninsula with the rest of the country.
Moreover, under Echeverría’s administration, maritime routes were established to further connect the peninsula with the mainland. These routes linked the ports of Mazatlán, Guaymas, and Puerto Vallarta to La Paz and Cabo San Lucas, aiming to increase both domestic and international tourism in Baja California.
Historically, however, the highway did not emerge from nowhere. It made accessible the paths that, long ago, were built by Jesuit missionaries to connect the missions in the southern part of Baja California.
In the northern part of the peninsula, it followed the dirt tracks created by the Franciscans and Dominicans, who succeeded the Jesuits, with the same purpose of linking the missions together.
After the period of development driven by the colonisation efforts of religious missionaries, Baja California experienced a long era of neglect and abandonment. During this time, the peninsula’s population dwindled significantly, and its inhabitants survived with very limited resources.
As early as 1859, historian Ulises Urbano Lasepas, author of Historia de la colonización de la Baja California, foresaw the need for a road to facilitate communication between the peninsula and the rest of the country. He advocated for such a project to counteract the abandonment of the region and promote its development. In one chapter of his work, he vividly described the challenges and slow pace of travel along the old, now-abandoned colonial roads. However, it was only with the discovery of gold and copper mines and the events of the 1910 Revolution that Mexico finally recognised the importance of Baja California’s colonisation history.
A Long Journey to Integrate Baja California with the Rest of Mexico
In 1916, Tijuana Governor Silverio I. Romero decided to construct the first section of the highway up to Ensenada, following the paths of the missionaries. However, the project was never completed.
In 1934, President Lázaro Cárdenas revived a series of initiatives aimed at developing and integrating the nation’s most remote regions. These projects sought to promote economic growth, political organisation, and stronger ties between these areas and the rest of the country. In addition to fostering a sense of national identity among the populations of these distant regions, the plan included improving communication and road networks to connect Baja California with the rest of the Republic.
During Cárdenas’ presidency, the first section of the highway between Tijuana and Ensenada was completed. It was later extended about 100 kilometres further south to the port of San Quintín. Cárdenas understood that his vision of modernising the country and bringing it in line with the contemporary world required the creation and development of new communication routes.
When World War II broke out, Mexico avoided involvement in international conflicts, instead focusing on its own territory. The war period underscored Mexico’s role as the protector and guardian of Pacific ports.
Baja California was no exception, and its importance grew during the war years. During this time, President Manuel Ávila Camacho, a former army general until 1933, declared that the maintenance and construction of the Transpeninsular Highway (which finally adopted its current name) would continue until it connected the city of La Paz with the naval military base at Bahía Magdalena.
In 1942, two scholars, Ulises Irigoyen and Moisés de la Peña, were commissioned by General Francisco J. Múgica, Governor of Baja California from 1940 to 1946, to prepare a report on the new road and identify its weaknesses.
Irigoyen noted that communication routes in the far south were still entirely inadequate. Only one paved section existed between La Paz and San Pedro, while reaching Todos Santos, the Pacific coast, and the towns of San José and San Lucas still required navigating dirt roads, making travel arduous.
As late as 1957, the condition of the Transpeninsular Highway left much to be desired, making communication in some southern sections of the peninsula slow and difficult. Scholar Fernando Jordán, in his book El Otro México, reported that of the 1,552 kilometres constructed up to that point, only 300 were in proper condition. Many sections were still dirt roads, and there was no easy route between the Santo Domingo Valley (now better known as Ciudad Constitución) and La Paz.
It was under the administration of Adolfo López Mateos (in office from 1958 to 1964) that significant stretches of the road were completed, including the section from Loreto to Santa Rosalía. Additionally, the first maritime connection between the mainland and the peninsula was established, with a modern ferry capable of transporting 370 passengers and 100 vehicles from Mazatlán to La Paz. This development helped reduce Baja California’s isolation from the rest of the country.
In 1967, during the presidency of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, the section between La Paz and San José del Cabo was completed. However, it was thanks to President Luis Echeverría that all these road segments, built over many years and under different administrations, were finally connected to create a single highway stretching from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas.
The Transpeninsular Highway was named after Benito Juárez, as 1973 was the year dedicated to the former president (the Mexico City airport, inaugurated the same year, was also named after him). It was assigned the number 1 because the city of Tijuana, located at the northeastern tip of Mexico, is considered the starting point for all federal roads that traverse the country. These roads follow an odd numbering system when running North-South and an even numbering system when oriented East-West.
Special thanks to Benjamin Arredondo and his detailed blog for the valuable information.