The Great Highway starts at Skyline Boulevard and runs north to Point Lobos Avenue and the Cliff House in the Outer Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco.

In the 1890s, a railway line was run along the route of the Great Highway from its Southern terminus to Golden Gate Park in order to build the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894.

[6] During the Hot Rod era of the 1950s–1960s, the Great Highway was a popular destination for owners of modified cars and others who wished to engage in rolling drag races.

[8] The two-mile-long (three-kilometer) middle section of the Great Highway, between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard, is currently closed to motor vehicles on holidays, weekends, and Friday afternoons and evenings to provide recreational access, but remains open to traffic the rest of the week.

[15] That month, three westside San Francisco supervisors and Mayor London Breed announced the new plan to reopen the Great Highway to motor vehicle traffic on weekdays (except Friday afternoons).

[20] In December 2022, after city voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have forced the Great Highway back open to motor vehicle traffic,[21] the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9–2 to renew the hybrid compromise until 2025.

[22] In June 2024, five supervisors and Mayor London Breed placed Measure K[23][24] on the November 2024 ballot asking voters to approve turning a two-mile stretch (3.2 km) of the Great Highway into an oceanfront park.

[25] Due to rising sea levels[26] the southernmost portion of the highway, Great Highway Extension from Sloat Boulevard to California State Route 35, is slated to close to vehicle traffic permanently starting early 2026[27] as part of the Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project, to be replaced with a multi-use pathway, plaza, and seawall protections for city wastewater infrastructure.