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U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System.
- Overview
- Background and construction
- Rise and demise of the route
Route 66, one of the first national highways for motor vehicles in the United States and one that became an icon in American popular culture.
The system of major interstate routes—12 odd-numbered ones, running generally north-south, and 10 even-numbered ones, running generally east-west—was laid out in a proposal created by the American Association of State Highway Officials and accepted by the U.S. secretary of agriculture in November 1925. The route from Chicago to Los Angeles was designated U.S. Highway 60. Various states raised objections to this designation. For example, Kentucky protested that the plan left that state out entirely and that, based on the placement of the other proposed east-west roads, a highway numbered 60 logically should run through Kentucky. Kentucky subsequently received the route number 60, and the original Route 60 was changed first to 62 and then to 66 in the final version of the plan, approved on November 11, 1926.
The original eastern terminus of the route in Chicago was at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Jackson Boulevard; a few years later it was moved some blocks east to U.S. Route 41, better known as Lake Shore Drive. The western terminus in Los Angeles was originally at Broadway and 7th Street; later it was moved westward to U.S. Route 101 ALT (now Lincoln Boulevard at Olympic Boulevard) in Santa Monica, California. Among the other cities served by the route were, from east to west, Springfield, Illinois; St. Louis, Springfield, and Joplin in Missouri; Tulsa and Oklahoma City in Oklahoma; Amarillo, Texas; Tucumcari, Santa Fe (later bypassed), Albuquerque, and Gallup in New Mexico; Holbrook, Flagstaff, and Kingman in Arizona; and Needles, Barstow, and San Bernardino in California.
By the mid-1930s, Route 66 was already being called the “Main Street of America.” Early promoters, notably John Woodruff of Springfield, Missouri, and Cyrus Avery of Tulsa, had envisioned a great road linking towns across the continent, and the organizations they founded to advance the idea were in effect multistate chambers of commerce. True to the promoters’ foresight, traffic on the highway increased, a growing share of it long-distance, and the need for food, fuel, repairs, and shelter transformed the economies of the towns through which the route passed. The development of novel methods of merchandising to the transient customer that became commonplace in mid-20th-century America—drive-in and drive-up businesses, fast food, motor inns, and roadside advertising—can to a great degree be traced to the influence of Route 66 in those towns. The large-scale migration to California of the “Okies,” dispossessed rural people from the Dust Bowl states during the 1930s, accelerated that development and also produced yet another byname for the highway, the “Mother Road,” so called in John Steinbeck’s novel of that migration, The Grapes of Wrath (1939).
The explosion of automobile traffic that followed the end of World War II provided the perfect milieu for a song memorializing the journey “from Chicago to LA, more than two thousand miles all the way.” Written by Bobby Troup and recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946 and by many other artists in subsequent years, “Route 66” invited the listener to “get your kicks” on that very road. From 1960 to 1964 a television series of the same name featured two adventurers who cruised the highway in a Chevrolet Corvette sports car. At the same time, the rapid expansion in traffic meant that Route 66, even more than many other interstate routes, was carrying far more vehicles than it was designed to bear.
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More and heavier traffic, more stringent safety requirements, and improved construction methods created a demand for a new kind of federal highway system. By the time U.S. Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, a few segments of Route 66 had already been superseded by newer, wider, and safer roads. The act authorized federal funding for an Interstate Highway System of such roads, and, despite an appeal by the state of Missouri on behalf of all the Route 66 states, there was to be no Interstate 66. Route 66 gradually was replaced by portions of several of the new high-speed limited-access superhighways. In many places these highways paralleled the old route or were built over its right-of-way. By 1977 the route had ceased to exist in Illinois, and in October 1984 the last segment was bypassed in Arizona. Route 66 was formally decommissioned on June 27, 1985.
Many private individuals, organizations, and towns have preserved portions of the roadway, businesses that throve on it, or collections of memorabilia. Among several museums dedicated to the route are those in Clinton, Oklahoma, and Barstow, California.
No road is as famous or as fascinating as Route 66. Why is this legendary road so famous? Where is it? How do you plan a trip on the Mother Road that includes all its most important stops? Here you’ll find all the information you need to organize the most fascinating road trip in the US.
- Route 66 is of historical importance. Route 66 holds critical authentic significance in the US. During its experience as a significant expressway, Route 66 not only associated the East Coast with the West Coast but also assumed an essential part in forming American culture, economy, and social texture.
- Route 66 signifies freedom. Watch this video on YouTube. Route 66 represents the American soul of opportunity and experience. It exemplifies the feeling of investigation and departure from schedule, as individuals set out on an excursion across America.
- Route 66 is a social symbol. Watch this video on YouTube. Route 66 has become profoundly imbued in American culture, highlighted broadly in writing, music, and film.
- Route 66 is popular for its grand beauty. The interstate navigates through different scenes, going from the dynamic city life of Chicago to the deserts of Arizona and the seashores of California.
- It Was One Of America’s First Fully Funded Federal Roads. Route 66 was one of the first fully funded roads on the Federal Highway System. In the early 1900s, the United States was still largely a rural country, and transportation infrastructure was lacking.
- Its Popularity Helped Its Decommissioning. Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985. The highway’s popularity helped to raise awareness of its importance and the need for its improvement, the construction of bypasses, and the widening of lanes.
- The National Park Service Plays a Role in Preserving Route 66. The National Park Service maintains the National Register of Historic Places, which consists of an exhaustive list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant to American heritage.
- Route 66 Passes Through 10 Protected American Public Lands. As well as countless unique roadside attractions, Route 66 also passes several nationally registered historical places, three national forests—Mark Twain National Forest, San Bernardino National Forest, and Kaibab National Forest—and one National Park—Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
Jun 27, 2022 · U.S. Highway 66 — popularly known as Route 66 — embodies a complex, rich history that goes well beyond any chronicle of the road itself. An artery of transportation, an agent of social transformation, and a remnant of America’s past, it stretches 2,400 miles across two-thirds of the continent.
Oct 11, 2021 · Route 66 is the quintessential embodiment of the road and all its greatest promises: freedom and serendipity, kitsch and living history, and a case study of the very particular way Americans have moved and multiplied.
