![]() 66 by I-40 led to the official decommissioning of the highway in 1985, impacting countless businesses and communities along the road.Īfter Route 66’s decommissioning, members of public and private organizations and State and Federal agencies who understood the highway’s historical and social significance started campaigns to preserve and commemorate the road. The 1984 bypassing of the last section of U.S. Interstate construction coincided with the powerful forces of economic consolidation as evidenced by the growth of branded gasoline stations, motels, and restaurant chains. In 1956, President Eisenhower, who had witnessed the military advantages of the German Autobahn during World War II, supported the passage of a law to construct a new system of high-speed, limited-access, four-lane divided highways - today’s interstates.įive new interstates (I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15, and I-10) incrementally replaced U.S. Just as the enormous traffic in the decade after World War II sent Route 66 into a boom time, the popularity and crowding of the highway signaled its demise. ![]() The adventures of two young men seeking their kicks in the 1960s television series, Route 66, further immortalized Route 66 as a highway of thrills. The bleak image of John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath faded as the upbeat lyrics of Bobby Troupe’s “Route 66” hit the airwaves. With the heavier traffic, businesses along the highway boomed, and the image of Route 66 as a Dustbowl migration route changed to one of freedom and kicks. With more cars and leisure time, families headed west on Route 66 to the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, and the beaches of Southern California. Automobile ownership grew dramatically over the next 10 years, with 52.1 million cars registered in 1955 (compared to the 25.8 million at the end of the war). ![]() When the war ended, traffic increased as rationing and travel restrictions were lifted. ![]() But more significantly, Route 66 facilitated perhaps the single greatest wartime mobilization, as thousands of jobseekers headed to California, Oregon, and Washington to work in defense plants. Motels saw an increase in occupancy, as families of servicemen stationed at military bases stayed for long stretches. 66, when it acted as a military transport corridor moving troops and supplies from one military reservation to another. World War II caused a marked decline in civilian and tourist traffic, but it stimulated new business along U.S. The vast migration of destitute people fleeing their former homes actually increased traffic along the highway, providing commercial opportunities to a multitude of low capital, mom-and-pop businesses. Even with tough times, the Depression that worked its baleful consequences on the nation produced an ironic effect along Route 66. As the highway became busier, the roadbed received improvements, and the infrastructure of support businesses - especially those offering fuel, lodging, and food that lined its right of way - expanded. ![]() Merchants in small and large towns along the highway looked to Route 66 as an opportunity for attracting new revenue to their often rural and isolated communities. The highway quickly became a popular route because of the active promotion of the U.S 66 Highway Association, which advertised it as “the shortest, best and most scenic route from Chicago through St. Like other highways in the system, the path of Route 66 was a cobbling together of existing local, State, and national roads. Route 66 had its official beginnings in 1926 when the Bureau of Public Roads launched the nation’s first Federal highway system. This fabled highway’s multiple alignments connect not only the East and the West, but also the past and the present. Flanked by historic buildings and diverse cultural resources, Route 66 slices across the continent, revealing the process of historical change that transformed the lives of people, their communities, and the nation. The highway winds from the shores of Lake Michigan across the agricultural fields of Illinois, to the rolling hills of the Missouri Ozarks, through the mining towns of Kansas, across Oklahoma where the woodlands of the East meet the open plains of the West, to the open ranch lands of Texas, the enchanted mesa lands of New Mexico and Arizona, to the Mojave Desert, and finally to the “land of milk and honey” – the metropolis of Los Angeles and the shores of the Pacific Ocean. 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. Highway 66 - popularly known as Route 66 - embodies a complex, rich history that goes well beyond any chronicle of the road itself. ![]()
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