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The Beginning There was a time towards the end of the 18th century, when there were only disconnected trails and roads to link the United States together. When Thomas Jefferson had to travel from Virginia to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, he was forced to repeatedly ask for directions from Pathfinders in order to find his way. Among the first overland highways in the European style were the 62 mile long "Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike", the "Boston Post Road" between New York and Boston, the "Wilderness Road through Kentucky", and the "Great Road", which connected Philadelphia with the origin of the Conestoga River. By the end of the 19th century the word "road" still meant "railroad". All this was to change rapidly right after the turn of the century. In 1903, the first road got an asphalt cover. In 1908 Henry Ford presented his famous auto "Model T" for $800. With an increase of automobiles from 10 million in 1920 to 23 million by the year 1929, not to mention a price decrease to $290 per car, there was an ever increasing demand for a connecting route linking the East to the West. So it came about that in 1926, on the 11th of November, Route 66 was born! Since Cyrus Stevens Avery, a business man and traffic expert from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is said to have fought the hardest for such a thoroughfare, he is credited as the "Father of Route 66". In order to promote this gigantic plan there was a marathon organized to cover the area between Los Angeles and Chicago within 90 days. Following the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929, the construction of Route 66 created thousands of jobs under the "Works Progress Administration" (WPA). As the building of Route 66 progressed, there was an ever increasing need for gas stations, tourist courts, cafes, hamburger stands and souvenir shops. Upon completion, Route 66 "linked the isolated, rural West to the densely populated urban Midwest and Northwest". Route 66 made it possible to move from the East to the West and enabled the most comprehensive movement of people in the history of the United States. New optimism was symbolized by Route 66 in the postwar economic recovery. Route 66 had a "diagonal configuration". This meant that not a single road between Chicago and Los Angeles was built. It was more a linking of existing roads by one thoroughfare. During the immediate post-depression years when long dry spells and breath-taking sandstorms changed big land stretches of the south and the mid-west into the so-called "Dust Bowl", hundreds of thousands of farmers were forced off their land in search of another livelihood. Under the motto: "California or bust" people from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Kansas and Colorado fled with their mattresses and goods on their car tops to the West, via Route 66. In the late thirties, after the great winds stopped, and the Dust Bowl had reverted back to fruitful land due to heavy rains, the once impoverished farmers soon became wealthy ones. During the mobilization of World War II, Route 66 was very busy. With a milder climate in California, the US army built their training camps out west, causing a mass migration of work forces to train in the numerous training camps along Route 66. Route 66 served as the main vein for the military service, transport of weapons, troops and general goods in both directions. |
