Apparently US 66 traffic originally used Coal Avenue, which runs one block to the south of the road that is currently marked as Historic 66 through town. Anyone know when things were changed to the current configuration (that is, when traffic was shifted to Railroad Avenue, which has since been renamed to "Historic 66")?
Coal is essentially Gallup's "Main Street", where all of the Downtown businesses are/were located. Railroad is mostly the backs of those businesses. I would expect it to be routed on Coal, but they likely pushed it out either when 66 needed to be widened or when people just wanted the thru traffic off the commercial strip.
The El Navajo Hotel, which was formerly attached to the train station in Gallup, was demolished in 1957 "to make way for widening of U.S. Route 66," so I would guess at that time. http://www.greatamericanstations.com/Stations/GLP
Quote from: coatimundi on July 28, 2016, 06:45:18 PM
The El Navajo Hotel, which was formerly attached to the train station in Gallup, was demolished in 1957 "to make way for widening of U.S. Route 66," so I would guess at that time.
That 1957 project must have been something different, because this map (c. 1934-1940) already shows Coal as "Old US 66":
https://research.archives.gov/id/5835381