What is Route 66?

 

Entrance to the Missouri Hick BBQ in Cuba, Missouri

From 1926 to 1985, US Route 66 was a highway that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles. Today it's probably the most famous highway in America--maybe the world--for several reasons.

Route 66 is one of several great westward American roads that symbolize the American dream of opportunity for all. For hundreds of years, Americans sought opportunity by moving west. In the 1800s they took the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon and the National Road (now US Route 40) from Maryland to Illinois. In the early 1900s they took the Lincoln Highway (now US Route 30), America’s first cross-country road, from New York to Los Angeles. In the 1930s, they sought to escape the Depression by taking Route 66 from Chicago and the Midwest to California.

Today Route 66 is the best-known of these great American roads because of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, the 1940s pop song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” written by Bobby Troup and popularized by Nat King Cole, and the early 1960s TV show “Route 66,” which featured two young men driving around the country in a Corvette, supporting themselves doing odd jobs and of course having adventures along the way. Who wouldn’t want their lifestyle? Route 66 has since been featured in the movies Easy Rider, Thelma and Louise, and Cars, but I think those films capitalized on rather than created Route 66’s mystique.

I think another reason that Route 66 is beloved today is that, officially, it doesn’t exist anymore. The National Road and Lincoln Highway still largely exist today as US 40 and US 30. But the Federal government decommissioned US Route 66 in 1985, reasoning that, with most of it replaced by interstate highways, it wasn’t worth maintaining. The decommissioning of Route 66 spurred protests and an array of efforts to preserve what’s left of it. While there have also been efforts to preserve the National Road and Lincoln Highway, there’s been a lot more invested in preserving Route 66…including investments by the National Park Service. Route 66 is not a national park, but the National Park Service has a Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program that has helped fund restorations of historic sites along Route 66.

These preservation efforts have left Route 66 with probably the best collection of vintage roadside structures from the 1930s through 1960s of any road in America. Some of these vintage structures are endearing gas stations designed to look like little cottages. Some are streamlined mid-century modern cafes. Some oversized structures like huge neon signs and giant “muffler men” were designed to catch the eye of passing travelers. They are now cherished as kitschy Americana—so beloved that new ones continue to be added.

All these structures—except the latest additions—are a living history of the early and mid-20^th century. I've heard Route 66 called the world's largest museum. Along some stretches of Route 66, you can get a real sense of what it was like to travel across the country 75 or 100 years ago. If you’re old enough to remember childhood road trip vacations in the 1950s and 1960s, Route 66 can be a nostalgic experience, even if you’ve never driven it before.

I think another reason that Route 66 is an iconic road trip is that it symbolizes American freedom. There are few other roads in the world on which you can travel thousands of miles at your own pace, with little traffic, and (unlike when you travel on interstate highways) experience so much of a country. Route 66 is truly the great American road trip.