Seems like a good idea to me, given the yearning for nostalgia…
Never. Its existence was made moot by the Interstate Highway System, and there is no reason to ever bring it back.
The number 66 may be recycled, but that road is dead and disappearing.
There are stretches of the old highway now designated as “Historic Route 66” so proof of its existence hasn’t entirely disappeared. However, as has previously stated, it’s longer part ofthe US Numbered Highway System because it’s been made redundant by the Interstate Highway System. If you think it should be brought back, take it up with AASHTO since they’re the organization responsible for recommissioning US highway numbers and routes.
(Also, what does this thread have to do with Cafe Society?)
Moving from Cafe to IMHO.
This.
There’s an Interstate 66 in Virginia, though it’s nowhere near where U.S. 66 used to be.
A lot of the nostalgia is for stuff the number won’t bring back. The roadside businesses, etc., are dead and gone forever.
Historic Route 66 is kind of a big deal in northern Arizona. The parts in black on the site’s map are the original stretches not subsumed by I-40. The loop up and back from I-40 between Seligman and Kingman is particularly interested in attracting nostalgic tourists. I figured Radiator Springs in Cars was a stand-in for Peach Springs.
Rt 6 is a cross country non-interstate route, IIRC it is the longest one in the nation also, so such a trip is possible. Not on the historic route but a local town to town drive.
Also we do have things like the Blue Ridge Parkway, which motorists tour for several days, stopping here and their on their way.
I can see a movement to bring back the old Rt 66 as some sort of historical national preservation, as the US is very much a car culture and would be similar to the national long distance hiking trails (AT, PCT, etc.), and would encourage development over time and be it’s own ‘vacation’.
ISTM the people for whom Route 66 is nostalgic are mostly past their driving days, if not past their breathing days.
I grew up in So Cal in the 60s, so the heart of the car culture demographic. I grew up not too far from the western end of 66. So geographically connected to route 66. As a kid I’ve ridden on those last few miles of it and heard about it from my parents. So socially and nostalgically connected to it.
For me it holds just about zero nostalgia value; At age 59 I’m already too young to “get it”. It was already pretty vestigial by the time I was 10, much less by the time I was driving myself.
My bottom line: IMO I don’t see any sort of critical mass wanting to do anything meaningful to resurrect the name or the idea. I can totally see breathless articles in AARP Monthly talking up the idea. Beyond that? Bupkiss.
Speak for yourself. I was out there in 2016 and loved it. I’m 52 and totally got it. It’s fun, quaint Americana.
Bigger than you might think, LSLGuy. Just drove 66 a few months ago, and I’m Australian. Had a (Blue) Whale of a time. (Tip of the hat to Elendil’s Heir and his wife for their graciousness).
Route 66 was a wild combination of ghost towns juxtaposed against that mad American entrepreneurial boosterism that is so infectiously likeable. Yes, Winslow AZ is a couple of miles of closed up tyre, gas and battery joints and has essentially contracted to THAT corner plus some souvenir shops. But places like Seligman were a hoot (especially the insane burger joint) and everywhere were surprises, stunning experiences, killer views and people doing the trip. Bittersweetness is the dominant theme, and everywhere overlaid by a sort of robust hymn to American amateurism of the “build it and they will come” school of business.
I saw more of America than had most of the Americans we spoke to, and it holds, in its gloriously clunky, hand made, chaotic way the spark of the divine. It is neither a thing nor a dream of a thing, but an emotional process, and it is a glory of the world.
I’ve driven the remnants from Kingman, AZ to Amboy, CA. A fun blast of nostalgia and adventure the whole way.
But I hope they don’t reconstitute it; it’s more fun finding the relics/remains.
Generally, when old nostalgic things get renovated, re-established, reinvented, they tend to also get Disneyfied. Nobody really likes it when that happens.
This happened at Avila Beach a few years ago. This smallish beach town near Pismo Beach has the typical old small town funky touristy beachfront strip. Everyone agreed it was funky, although no two people had similar ideas of just what “funky” means.
It was discovered that an oil tank farm on a nearby hilltop had been leaking oil into the ground since forever and that the entire old small town funky touristy beachfront strip was sitting on top on a tar pit. The entire area, including the beach, got condemned, torn down, excavated (yes, even the beach), cleaned up, purified, sterilized, and eventually re-built. A few of the older buildings were dismantled, brick by brick, all parts labeled and numbered, and eventually reassembled.
But the whole area just ain’t the same, not at all. Whole blocks of buildings, having been built all together, have a themed sameness to them that the originals totally didn’t have. Even the sidewalks, likewise. It’s a Disneyfied theme park now.
Any effort to re-build Route 66 is likely to meet a similar fate.
OK. I had to chuckle out loud. Thank you.
Leaving aside that there’s no reason to bring the highway back, and that parts of the original route don’t even exist anymore, there’s also the problem of re-routings. In St. Louis there were, IIRC, something like 12 different alignments of U.S. 66, depending on when bridges over the Mississippi River opened, when city streets were widened to four or more lanes, and even when new streets were built.
Every one of those different routings currently has “Historic 66” signage – as they should. But if you want to re-commission the one and only U.S. 66, which alignment will you use? The first one? The final one? You can be sure that everyone will have a different opinion.
Okay, help a friendly but befuddled Canuck neighbour.
There was a song about Route 66. Isn’t that about it? What is it that makes it special?
My favorite segment is the stretch between Kingman and Seligman. A super-nice drive with some gorgeous scenery and several cool roadside attractions along the way: there’s Giganticus Headicus, the Hackberry General Store, Grand Canyon Caverns, and Seligman itself, home of the Snow Cap Drive-In.
I think there’s still a lot of interest in The Mother Road and other fabled cross-country routes like US Route 6 and The Lincoln Highway. Route 66 shouldn’t be recommissioned so much as protected from Disneyfication.
A song and a TV Show.