It was the major connector between the Midwest and California; unlike many other routes to the West Coast, it was passable in winter and a relatively easy-to-drive route. It became famous (or notorious) during the Great Depression as the path taken by the impoverished Great Plains farmers who migrated to California (see John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.) During and after World War II it was the entryway for the southern California population explosion. Every American vacationer who went to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas or Hollywood wound up on Route 66 at some point.
Did you know that Jan and Dean’s 1964 song “Little Old Lady From Pasadena” also mentions Route 66? It appears by the name Colorado Boulevard in the song, the main drag through Pasadena, and historic Route 66 in that area.
Tough to choose just one version, but it ain’t gonna get much better than Ray Charles.
For decades, I’ve said that the humorless technocrats at AASHTO should just give in and recommission it, complete with vintage signs for the German tourists to photograph. As kunilou notes, they’d have to pick a canonical routing, but it could be the one from 1964 (that’s when California dropped co-routings for US routes).
The particular problem with 66, not shared by all the old US routes, is that, due to challenging terrain through unpopulated areas, much of its routing has disappeared under I-55, I-40, and I-15. The old two-lane highway became the eastbound or westbound lanes of the new highway, or sometimes a frontage road. So even following the 1950 routing puts you on many, many miles of modern Interstate highway.
The mystique of Old 66 to foreign visitors is well known to the states it crossed, and nearly every mile is now marked by brown Historic 66 signs and business associations publishing pamphlets and maps of it. Several stretches have also now been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
I’ve been on Historic 66 in Cali and in Oklahoma – I say leave things as they are, with the “historic” designation, so that what is left of it can be a monument to that age, an evocation of The Mother Road. Otherwise it would become just another highway.
Sorry to go off on a tangent but the acronym for AASHTO used to be AASHO. I wonder why changed it? :rolleyes:
As for old US Route 66, it has the same historical significance as the Oregon Trail or the Lincoln Highway. Designating the highway as Historic US Route 66 makes perfect sense but there’s no need to go further and recommission it.
Wow–Thank you for saying so eloquently what I’ve never been able to put in words.
Cynical Americans call it “flyover country”. But I’ve long felt a weird but deep love for it.
Thanks.
Isn’t US 30 still marked as the Lincoln Highway?
Agreed on the question of routing. In New Mexico, 66 originally went up to Santa Fe and then back down to Albuquerque. Later alignment cut Santa Fe out completely. In Albuquerque, for example, parts of 4th St are marked “Historic Rt 66 Pre-1937” while the newer alignment was straight through Tijeras Canyon and down Central west towards Arizona. It’s still drivable (well, depending on what you think of the white elephant ART project) from about Tijeras to Laguna today.
I was told years ago that this isn’t correct - that Route 66 was never Colorado Boulevard but rather Colorado Place in Arcadia near the racetrack.
Was this wrong? Did Route 66 follow Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena?
As I understand it, 66 is on Colorado Place in Arcadia which turns into East Colorado Blvd in Pasadena.
A few years ago, while driving along I-55 in central Illinois, I saw a convoy of motorcycles riding on the historic Route 66 route (which parallels I-55), several of which were flying Swedish flags, and which were being followed by several support vehicles (vans and RVs), also carrying Swedish flags. I was entertained by the thought of a group of Swedish bikers, coming to the US to ride along Route 66.
I’ve got a not obviously dated but obviously pre-interstate Los Angeles street map in front of my Rand McNally, via the friendly people at Union 76 tell me that Colorado Boulevard was indeed Route 66.
eta: I know there’s a date somewhere on this damn thing, but I can’t find it right now. There is, however, a big X-marks-the-spot type indication right at Huntington Drive and San Gabriel Boulevard in San Marino. Suppose the treasure’s still there?
There’s a lot of such foreign groups, and as a Chicago tour-guide, I get some of them started on their way. A few years ago, I was in discussions to accompany a group of Portuguese motorcyclists all the way to Santa Monica, but I had a date conflict.
NDP, AASHO became AASHTO in the 1970s, as many state highway departments became departments of transportation. Gotta pay lip service to mass transit, you know.
Nah. Too many other places nowadays to get your kicks.
Yeah. For awhile I was staying at a hotel in San Francisco the same day every week. And each morning a large group of Germans wearing Harley gear and yabbering excitedly in German would be downstairs loading up their rented Harley’s.
It was an organized tour bike tour that ran US1 from Seattle to San Diego one way then picked up another batch of tourists going the other way. From the signage on the support vans that carried everyone’s luggage, it seemed they offered several Euro languages. So e.g. everyone leaving Seattle southbound on the 1st of the month was German, then everyone going North out of San Diego on the 15th was French, etc.
I saw many of these groups and they all seemed to be having a lot of fun.
That’s a trip I’d like to take, but a Harley wouldn’t be my first choice.
Agreed. Useless lumps of Soviet-tech pig iron the lot of them IMO. But for sheer concentrated Americana they can’t be beat. Just like the vestigial Route 66 this thread is ostensibly about.
In Europe there are similar packaged tour groups full of gringos riding rented BMWs.
Maybe dig under the big “W”?
Anyway … it’s been my experience that the road map people don’t put dates on maps so that they will still sell even after being on the racks for a few years. Who wanted to buy a 1970 map in 1972?
I used to drive 66 all the time going down Central Avenue in Albuquerque. That’s been mentioned. Took a couple of trips to California in a 57 Buick Special in 1959 and 60. That’s when people tied canvas water bags to the front of their radiators before heading out to the desert. My mom made my stepdad buy an under the dash air conditioner for it when we got to Phoenix. Route 66 is still their, but it’s been chopped up, and the parts that went under the Interstate Highways cannot possibly be reconstituted. You’d have to build tunnels.
Over the last 50 years or so I’ve driven just about all of Route 66 in California, Arizona and New Mexico. Mostly by accident, but I’ve made several trips that purposely took the Mother Road, mostly through Arizona.
Side detail: My parents honeymooned at the Wigwam Motel on Route 66 in San Bernardino back in the day.