History History

The National Road, the first overland route built by the federal government, runs from Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois (then the state capital), about 1,000 miles. It was a dirt road used by wagons and stagecoaches, the main means of transportation at the time. In the 1830s, it became the second American road to be paved with macadam, a material developed by the Scotsman John Loudon McAdam, after the 10-mile portion of the Boonsborough Turnpike Road in Maryland, paved in 1823.

On May 10, 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad Company and the Union Pacific Railroad Company joined at Promontory Summit, Utah, and connected the East and West by rail. In six years, more than 20,000 workers, mostly Chinese and Irish, laid some 2,700 miles of track in the largest American engineering project at the time. The railroad was then the main and fastest way to connect the two coasts of America.

The Good Roads Movement was founded in May 1880 in Newport, Rhode Island. This movement brought together riding clubs, bicycle enthusiasts and their manufacturers and aimed to support the growing use of bicycles. Originally a city-based movement, it became a national one under pressure from farmers who wanted to open up their regions for easier access to the big cities. Numerous articles on the benefits of "good roads" were published.

The Berlin industrialist Karl Benz invented the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in Germany, the first commercially available automobile. His Nummer 3 model was patented on January 29, 1886 and put into production in 1888.

American Frank Duryea and his older brother Charles invent the first petroleum-powered automobile: the Duryea Motor Wagon.
The same year, the Bureau of Public Roads was created within the United States Department of Agriculture. Under pressure from the Good Roads Movement, it undertakes a systematic evaluation of existing road transportation systems.

On June 4, 1896, in Detroit, Henry Ford successfully experimented with his first automobile prototype: the Ford Quadricycle.

Henry Ford launches his first automobile, the Ford A. 1,750 units are built between 1903 and 1904.

The Ford Motor Company launches the Ford T, which becomes the first mass-produced automobile.

Creation and development of the Auto Trails. This first informal road network maps the main dirt roads(trails) of the United States. Trails that have been named by private or road associations and the states where they pass. These names are chosen for local monuments, to honor historical figures or simply for their uniqueness. To orient drivers and make zigzagging on rural roads easier, colored stripes and symbols painted or posted on telephone poles mark the route. Several routes often followed the same roads, and telephone poles were sometimes decorated with countless different markers. The system was phased out in 1926 with the adoption of the numbering system. The markers were replaced by thousands of black and white shields, a symbol that remains today to indicate Route 66.

The National Old Trails Highway, connecting New York to Los Angeles, became the first road to be listed by the Auto Trails network and the first intercontinental road. In 1926, it was partially integrated into Route 66, from Las Vegas (NM) to Los Angeles, as well as a very short section in the suburbs of St. Louis (Manchester Road).

The Lincoln Highway, linking New York and San Francisco, becomes the second transcontinental highway after the National Old Trails Highway. Its route is north of the one chosen for Route 66. Its only similarity to Route 66 is its passage through Chicago. The Lincoln Highway was divided into several segments in 1926 when the road network was numbered.

On July 11, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Aid Road Act. This law is intended to finance the States to allow them to develop their own road network. This is on the condition that the roads concerned are open to the public free of charge.

Of the approximately 4,800,000 km of the U.S. road network, only 58,000 km are paved.

On November 9, 1921, President Warren Harding signs the Federal Highway Act, which calls for the establishment of an interstate system of interconnected highways, the future Interstates. Cyrus Stevens Avery, a contractor from Tulsa (OK), and future "father" of Route 66, is elected president of the Associated Highways Association of America.

Cyrus Avery and several businessmen, including John T. Woodruft, an influential figure from Springfield (MO), are beginning the selection process which, state by state, will determine which roads will be retained in the future federal highway system. Some 250 "trails" are in the running. The route proposed to the American Association of State Highway Officials was finally adopted in the fall of 1925. This route was to open up Chicago and the rich Middle West towards the Pacific and Los Angeles. Eight states would be crossed: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

The U.S. government ratified the birth of U.S. Highway 66 on November 11, 1926. The route begins in Chicago at Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Ave and ends in downtown Los Angeles at 7th St and Broadway, a distance of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It passes through mostly flat areas with a more moderate climate than the northern routes. It generally runs along the railroad and telegraph lines and forms a succession of more or less well-marked paths. In Oklahoma, farmers were paid by the state to maintain the sections that crossed or ran alongside their land. By the end of 1926, only one-third of the route was paved. It was first called The Great Diagonal Way.

The Associated Highways Association of America adopted the principle of a road numbering grid, with even numbers for those running east-west, and odd numbers for those running north-south. The United States Numbered Highways system gradually replaced Auto Trails. The grid has an increasing number from west to east and from south to north. In reference to this grid, the road (future 66) must take the numbering "60". But elected officials in Kentucky and Virginia insisted on keeping this number for one of their roads. Cyrus Avery and his colleagues settled on "66", which sounded good to the ear! On April 30, 1926, a telegram was sent from the Lincoln Hotel in Springfield, where the association had met, to the Bureau of Public Roads. The request of this message, asking that the name of the road be changed to Route 66, was accepted.

As for the reason for the choice of the name Route 66 and not Road 66, it is simply because the word "road", in American, is similar to a route. Our Route 66 is very different from a simple road, which is only a classic route outside of a town.

He is considered the father of Route 66. Clear-sighted on the interest of the development of the road network in the United States, this wise businessman and former oilman became in 1921 a member of the federal council in charge of creating the numbering system of the roads (Federal Highway System). He was the main initiator of the creation of Route 66, which would open up the Middle West and allow cities such as Tulsa, his adopted city, to prosper more rapidly.

Creation of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to popularize Route 66 and to have it paved. John T. Woodfruft becomes its^first president. At its first meeting on February 4, the association adopts the nickname "Main Street of America", which will be printed on brochures, postcards and maps widely distributed in the country.

Members of the National U.S. 66 Highway Association were looking for a way to get the word out about the little known U.S. Route. They decided to organize an international foot race, following the route of 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago before turning east to finish at Madison Square Garden in New York. The winner would receive $25,000. The program is inspired by the Tour de France cycling race, with a regulatory distance to be covered each day of 26 to 130 km depending on the terrain and a caravan accompanying the athletes who sleep in tents. Charles C. Pyle, a famous sports agent from Illinois, organized the event. 275 competitors took the start, amateurs and pros of the marathon, they will be only 55 at the arrival. It was March but the ordeal was terrible. Many gave up at the beginning of the crossing, in the unbearable heat of the Mojave desert, when the survivors had to face the cold of the mountains in Arizona and New Mexico. Despite all this, the runners hang on. Andy Payne, a Cherokee farmer from Foyil, a town in Oklahoma crossed by the 66, won this first "Transamerica".

Route 66 is fully paved in Illinois and Kansas. It is also two thirds paved in Missouri and one quarter in Oklahoma. Some sections, such as the "Jericho Gap" in Texas, became infamous: these dirt sections quickly turned into mud fields during the often violent downpours that occurred in the region. Between Texas and California, only 100 km are built in hard surface. The original pavement is made of concrete slabs measuring 4 m by 4 m.

On October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange collapsed: it was "Black Tuesday" and the beginning of the Great Depression.

In addition to the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, a series of sand and dust storms, hit the Midwest from 1931 to 1938, destroying all crops, stripping fields of their soil by erosion, replacing it with dust, sometimes burying homes and farm equipment. Thousands of farmers from Oklahoma (the Okies) and Arkansas (the Arkies) fled the misery and migrated to the West as well, joining the migrants of the Great Depression. Stripped of their property by the banks, unable to pay back their debts, millions of people left their foreclosed homes and/or their land that could no longer be cultivated. Entire families crossed hundreds of miles of inhospitable countryside without passing a single motel, gas station or restaurant. Some had painted on their cars the words California or bust . Others had to sell the tires of their cars to feed themselves. One of the great testimonies of this era is John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes ofWrath(1939), which was followed by John Ford's 1940 film masterpiece of the same name. To these two works, we can add the astonishing photographs of American photographers such as Dorothea Lange (her Migrant Mother photo has been seen around the world), Arthur Rothstein and Walker Evans, whose work was carried out from 1935 onwards as part of a mission entrusted by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression.

On March 4, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President of the United States and launched his New Deal policy, a policy that would provide work for millions of unemployed people from 1933 to 1938 and allow the construction of huge projects throughout America: roads, bridges, dams, national park infrastructures, etc. At that time, road construction progressed unevenly from state to state, depending on local possibilities and experience. In 1931, the 66 was completed in Oklahoma. In the years following the beginning of the New Deal, it was also completed in California in 1934 and in Texas and New Mexico in 1937. In 1938, the road was completely paved with pink concrete slabs from Chicago to Los Angeles.

On August 15, 1935, Will Rogers, one of the leading American actors and comedians of the 1920s and 1930s, a native of Clermore, Oklahoma, died in a plane crash during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe by the Arctic route. His death plunged the whole country into mourning.

The end of Route 66 is extended from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica at Lincoln Boulevard and Olympic Boulevard.
In New Mexico, one of the most important bypasses of the Route is the one in Santa Fe. The city is isolated north of the new 50-mile route.

All of Route 66 is now paved with asphalt or macadam. The start of the route from Chicago is moved half a mile east of its original location at the intersection of Jackson and Lake Shore Drive (in the heart of today's Grant Park).

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor naval base in the Pacific, leading to the entry of the United States into World War II.
The effect on Route 66 was immediate. As automobile production dropped dramatically, tires became scarce and gasoline was rationed, Route 66 became essential for transporting weapons, war materials and troops from the center of the country to the Pacific coast. Numerous arms factories, military bases and training camps were set up along the route. The American forces organized their supplies as well as their defense against a Japanese attack on California. The road was damaged and patched up on all sides.

The war is over and tourists eager for sun and leisure rush to Route 66, which sees its first traffic jams forming towards the shores of California. Bobby Troup, a singer and jazz musician, will make the Mother Road famous. It is while leaving for Los Angeles with his wife Cynthia that he composes the lyrics of the song Get Your Kicks on Route 66, which Nat King Cole will immediately make a success. The title will be taken thereafter by the greatest, of which Chuck Berry in 1961 and the Rolling Stones in 1964.
Become too narrow for the cars of post-war, the accidents on Route 66 are very numerous. It is nicknamed Bloody Highway, but also Two-Lane Killer, Death Alley, Camino de la Muerte... It remains nevertheless the main road to the West. It contributes to the economic growth of the different states it crosses and offers many job opportunities along its route. The very existence of the road generates new ways of earning a living: roadside restaurants, drive-ins, coffee shops, gas stations, round-the-clock service, inns and motels are all developing. The Indians perpetuate the trading posts, counters of exchange and sale of products and foodstuffs which become little by little stores of craft industry and souvenirs above all. All this contributes to the legend, without forgetting the luminous or advertising signs. It became the symbol of freedom, modernity and speed. Cities like Amarillo in Texas, Albuquerque in New Mexico, Flagstaff and Kingman in Arizona became emancipated thanks to it.

In conjunction with the release of the film The Will Rogers Story, Route 66 is named "Will Rogers Highway" in memory of the actor and comedian who died in 1935 and whose name remains in the hearts of many Americans. A promotional campaign led by the National Highway 66 Association, Warner Bross Studios and the Ford Motor Company was launched. A caravan of celebrities travelled along Route 66 from St. Louis to Santa Monica, with a ceremony at the end of each state where a plaque dedicated to the artist was placed along the route.
The end of the route is moved from the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Olympic Boulevard to the corner of Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. It is marked by the Will Rogers Highway Marker (on the current Palisades Park lawn).

The first bypass of US 66 by a toll road took place in Oklahoma with the opening of the Turner Turnpike between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. This 88-mile (142 km) road parallels Route 66 for its entire length.

In Chicago, Jackson Boulevard was made one-way and no longer allowed a departure to the west of the city. Adams Street, one block to the north, became the only route close to Route 66 that could substitute for the starting point on Jackson. The sign indicating the starting point of Route 66 has been on Adam Street since that date, a few meters from the corner with Michigan Avenue.

On June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The purpose of this law was to create a 68,000 km long highway network throughout America: the Interstate Highway System. The final blow fell: Route 66 would eventually be bypassed by 5 interstates.

Jack Kerouac publishes On the Road, which is the story of an epic journey through the USA in the 1950s. Without explicitly mentioning Route 66, some of the cities crossed are part of the stages of the mythical route and highlight the aspirations, doubts and dreams of a whole generation.
On June 28, 1957, Turner Turnpike was joined by the Will Rogers Turnpike, a second toll road that connected Tulsa to the west of Joplin, on the border of Oklahoma and Missouri. Both turnpikes will soon become part of I-44.

On October 7, 1960, the CBS television network launched a series called Route 66, with Martin Milner and George Maharis. Four seasons and 116 episodes will be shot. The last broadcast will take place on March 4, 1964.

The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., honors Route 66 in its America on the Move section, dedicated to the role and history of transportation in the United States.

Release of Dennis Hopper's film Easy Rider . Shot along Route 66, the film paints a subversive portrait of America by following the story of two biker-hippies. Peter Fonda, one of the protagonists, is the son of Henry Fonda, who was the hero of John Ford's 1940 film The Grapes of Wrath.

From the 1970's onwards, great changes are felt on the whole Route 66. Many 4-lanes have replaced parts of the original road and tourists in a hurry now use the city bypasses and the new highways, when it is not the Interstates already finished or in the process of being finished. This is the progressive end of local tourism for many small towns.

On October 13, 1984, Williams, Arizona, became the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed by an interstate, in this case I-40. The event was highly publicized and, for the occasion, the NPR radio station broadcast a 55-minute report Route 66: The Mother Road. Five interstates now bypass the entire Route 66: I-55 from Chicago to St. Louis, I-44 from St. Louis to Oklahoma City, I-40 from Oklahoma City to Barstow, I-15 from Barstow to San Bernardino and I-10 from San Bernardino to Santa Monica.

On June 27, 1985, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials removed Route 66 from the federal highway system. There were approximately 3,000 abandoned motels, not counting the gas stations, restaurants and drive-ins that were falling into disrepair. Route 66 disappeared from the road maps.

Angel Delgadillo, a barber from Seligman, creates the "Route 66 Association of Arizona". His town was suffering from the bypass and he wanted to attract tourists again. It takes time and little by little a new frequentation is felt. In November, the State of Arizona decides to give the distinction of "Historic Route 66" to the section going from Seligman to Kingman.

In the following years, each state concerned by the passage of Route 66 will see the birth of its own association.

In 1990, the American historian and writer Michael Wallis published Route 66: The Mother Road. The book was a great success and contributed to the renewed interest in "The Main Street of America".

President Bill Clinton signed the National Route 66 Preservation Bill into law, providing $10 million for the preservation of Route 66 and its attractions.
The National Park Service is charged with administering the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program as of August 10, 1999. This program provides grant assistance for the preservation of the most representative buildings, road segments, and natural sites along Route 66. The sites selected by the National Park Service are included in the Route 66 section of the Discover our Shared Heritage series, which is available on the U.S. National Parks website.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Adventure Cycling Association are developing a plan for a U.S. bikeway network to be approved in 2008. Much of it is to use Route 66.

Release of the animated film Cars, signed by Pixar, whose action takes place on Route 66. This film will help to revive the promotion of Route 66. The film will have two sequels, in 2011 and 2017.

The Word Monuments Fund classifies the road among the hundred most endangered historic monuments in the world. Thus, the route is once again signposted in several places under the name "Historic Route 66". Initiatives revive tourism and allow some establishments to reopen their doors or even obtain their classification, thus preserving them from destruction. Unfortunately, the old motels, gas stations, spectacular signs and typical fast-food restaurants have generally disappeared, replaced by new facilities that are far from having the retro charm of their predecessors.

On the occasion of the ^86th anniversary of Route 66, its end is once again moved a few hundred meters. A sign is installed on the boards of the Santa Monica pier, in the extension of Colorado Avenue, in the middle of the amusement park on the ocean.
The National Park Service opens an online travel itinerary dedicated to Route 66 on its website: Travel Route 66. The itinerary highlights destinations listed in the National Register of Historic Places, including more than 250 buildings.
Bob Waldmire, a well-known Route 66 artist for the many cartoons and drawings he signed throughout his travels on The Mother Road, died on December 16. His yellow bus and his Volkswagen campervan are now on display at the Route 66 Association Hall Of Fame Museum in Pontiac (IL).

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) gave approval on May 22, 2018 for the creation of USBR 66, a bicycle route that follows the entire length of the Route 66 corridor. The first section opens on June 17, 2018. It connects Baxter Springs, and St. Louis. The ribbon cutting takes place at Schifferdecker Park in Joplin.

The crisis of Covid strikes the whole world and Route 66 does not escape it. However, the various organizations effectively subsidize its survival.

Opening of the second section of U.S. Bicycle Route 66 (USBR 66), between Santa Monica and the Arizona state line near Needles.

On April 30, 2022, on the 96th anniversary of the adoption of the number 66 for the route (April 30, 1926), a tribute is paid to Route 66 with a 2.5 minute Google Doodle video with Get your Kicks on Route 66 as background music, performed by its creator, Bobby Troup.
The Oklahoma section of U.S. Bicycle Route 66 (USBR 66) opens on June 28, 2022. The western end of the route begins at the Texas border in Texola, OK. It follows the historic alignment of US 66 in Oklahoma City with a notable deviation west of the city and then away from Route 66.

About 85% of the route is still passable outside of the interstates. It is mainly in California and Arizona, and to a lesser extent in New Mexico, that portions of the original Route 66 have disappeared and that theinterstate is unavoidable. The marking of Route 66 is on the whole very well done and remains the responsibility of the various associations which often put their hand in their pocket to put the necessary road signs. Several museums dedicated to it are installed along the road and many "vestiges", monuments and other witnesses of the past are registered in the National Register of Historic Places and have been renovated. Here and there, new stores are opening up, keeping the "vintage" spirit and atmosphere of the 50s.