What is the story behind Route 66?
What is the story behind Route 66?
Route 66 reduced the distance between Chicago and Los Angeles by more than 200 miles, which made Route 66 popular among thousands of motorists who drove west in subsequent decades. Like other highways of its day, Route 66 reflects the origin and evolution of road transportation in the United States.
What was Route 66 originally called?
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 …
Why is Route 66 no longer used?
Route 66’s popularity led to its downfall, with traffic swelling beyond its two-lane capacity. In 1956, legislation created the Interstate System, and over the course of three decades, five separate interstates bypassed segment after segment of Route 66.
Why was Route 66 important during the Great Depression?
Its diagonal route linked hundreds of predominantly rural communities in Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas to Chicago, thus enabling farmers to transport grain and produce for redistribution.
Why was Route 66 called the Mother Road?
In his classic novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck called Route 66 the “Mother Road” because it beckoned to desperate migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl as they moved west in search of jobs in the 1930s. But in the years after the Depression, the highway took on mythic status as America’s main street for adventure.
Why was Route 66 called the Mother road?
What states did Route 66 cross?
Route 66 runs through 8 different states within the United States. From east to west, it runs through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
How long did it take to build Route 66?
This process began in 1956 and took almost thirty years to be completed, but it was implacable. The American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) ruled on June 26, 1985 to eliminate its designation. Williams, Arizona, was the last town to be bypassed in 1984. Route 66 no longer existed.