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N0KFQ > TODAY 27.06.12 18:42l 61 Lines 2725 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 24358_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 27
Path: IZ3LSV<IK2XDE<ON4HU<CX2SA<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 120627/1624Z 24358@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.51
Jun 27, 1985:
Route 66 decertified
After 59 years, the iconic Route 66 enters the realm of history
on this day in 1985, when the American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials decertifies the road and
votes to remove all its highway signs.
Measuring some 2,200 miles in its heyday, Route 66 stretched from
Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, passing through
eight states. According to a New York Times article about its
decertification, most of Route 66 followed a path through the
wilderness forged in 1857 by U.S. Navy Lieutenant Edward Beale at
the head of a caravan of camels. Over the years, wagon trains and
cattlemen eventually made way for trucks and passenger
automobiles.
The idea of building a highway along this route surfaced in
Oklahoma in the mid-1920s as a way to link the state to cities
like Chicago and Los Angeles. Highway Commissioner Cyrus S. Avery
touted it as a way of diverting traffic from Kansas City,
Missouri and Denver. In 1926, the highway earned its official
designation as Route 66. The diagonal course of Route 66 linked
hundreds of mostly rural communities to the cities along its
route, allowing farmers to more easily transport grain and other
types of produce for distribution. The highway was also a
lifeline for the long-distance trucking industry, which by 1930
was competing with the railroad for dominance in the shipping
market.
Route 66 was the scene of a mass westward migration during the
1930s, when more than 200,000 people traveled from the
poverty-stricken Dust Bowl to California. John Steinbeck
immortalized the highway, which he called the "Mother Road," in
his classic 1939 novel "The Grapes of Wrath."
Beginning in the 1950s, the building of a massive system of
interstate highways made older roads increasingly obsolete, and
by 1970, modern four-lane highways had bypassed nearly all
sections of Route 66. In October 1984, Interstate-40 bypassed the
last original stretch of Route 66 at Williams, Arizona, and the
following year the road was decertified. According to the
National Historic Route 66 Federation, drivers can still use 85
percent of the road, and Route 66 has become a destination for
tourists from all over the world.
Often called the "Main Street of America," Route 66 became a pop
culture mainstay over the years, inspiring its own song (written
in 1947 by Bobby Troup, "Route 66" was later recorded by artists
as varied as Nat "King" Cole, Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones)
as well as a 1960s television series. More recently, the historic
highway was featured prominently in the hit animated film "Cars"
(2006).
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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