What you find Interesting looking at old roads that you want be part of

[roadman65]

Someone recently posted pics on a picture website of old US 66 alignement photos of the winding road one part of it once was.  It was narrow with ten feet travel lanes and followed the topography of the land to a tee.

Considering in the nineteenth century roads were dirt traveled by horse and buggy, the first motor roads must of appeared modern to those at the time, even though to us it appears substandard to what highways are now.

Ditto it is for us to look at Black and White pictures today not having living color, but when old black and white photos were the norm, people then looked at them like we see perfect digital images of today.

Same with my road photos of the past. I look at them now, and I feel that they are crappy, but originally at the time i first took the photo, I actually liked the image because the grainy 35 mm prints were as modern as one could get back then. Now improved photography has really changed so much it makes the cool new stuff of before appear crappy to say the least.

However, there is a lesson here to be learned. When we see old US 66 ( or any old alignment pics) we sometimes forget that the part of history we see, is basically how previous generations lived and traveled and that we are to imagine what a back road was like in the day as modern straight line highways and freeways weren't developed.  Basically the road geeks then, didn't have internet to share their feelings and experiences with each other, but had to admire those old roads as cool parts of an existing society.

Yes that is normal, but personally, I feel, that we do forget at times that people were cool than as we are now, and it's a shame we can't go back in time to see all that when it happened.

If it were me, I wish I could literally see Route 66 in its heyday.  What era of roads do you wish to relive if time travel were possible.?

[Max Rockatansky]

I'd probably be most interested in visiting the early 1920s era.  There was some modern highways at the time but it was mostly in the transitional period between the dying days of the Auto Trails and heyday of the US Route System.  Traveling long distances over dirt or staying at places like motor courts seems novel by modern standards.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Denver, maybe in the 50's to 60's.

Right now, I've been looking at old pictures, trying to figure out some of the railroad spaghetti. I was trying to figure out why the tracks dead-end at Union Station. But then I realized, the old Mousetrap had a certain charm to it. The previous 270/76/36 fustercluck, was FUN!

[tmoore952]

Denver, maybe in the 50's to 60's.

Right now, I've been looking at old pictures, trying to figure out some of the railroad spaghetti. I was trying to figure out why the tracks dead-end at Union Station. But then I realized, the old Mousetrap had a certain charm to it. The previous 270/76/36 fustercluck, was FUN!

Phoenix when it had the US 60/70/80 multiplex.

[epzik8]

1960s with Interstate highways truly beginning to take shape.

[SEWIGuy]

I would like to drive around the road network in southern Wisconsin as it was in about 1975 when I was a child. It would be fun to see how it has changed.

[tmoore952]

1960s with Interstate highways truly beginning to take shape.

I do not remember that personally, having been born in 1967.

However, I can relate two stories from my older siblings.

One was (them) walking along and/or observing (I don't know what they were allowed to do) I-95 in far northern Delaware as it was being built (opened in 1968). That would have been cool to experience.

The other was (them and me, as a baby) traveling from Delaware to visit relatives in central Ohio, with parts of I-70 being done, and other parts not done (and probably connecting to US 40, at least in Ohio/WV/extreme western PA [they wouldn't have gone through MD]). That must have gotten really old really fast.

[pderocco]

I think most of us would be most interested in seeing and driving the old roads in the areas we're familiar with. Otherwise, we wouldn't have much to compare them with. I grew up in Massachusetts, and would love to have seen route 128 built, or perhaps the Mass Pike. I have vague memories of the road work that took place during my childhood, but what happened before that, in the 1930s and 1940s would be fun to go back and see.

Today, I drive lots of old roads or old alignments of roads. I imagine what they were like when the businesses along them were thriving, and not decrepit ruins, or what they must have felt like when crowded with 1940s cars carrying people to and from work, instead of just the occasional rental car carrying some road-curious German tourists. Earlier today, I had a dose of that, driving US-60 from Aguila to Hope, Arizona. There was hardly anybody on the road.

You might find this interesting:

It's a derelict building I photographed 20 years ago in Brenda, AZ, very close to what's now the west end of US-60. It shows the remains of a map that had been painted on a wall, probably before any Interstates had been built yet, showing the US routes of the Southwest. That building has pretty much collapsed by now, so this map doesn't exist any more, but at one time people probably looked at it not as a curiosity but as a useful guide. Here's the Street View of that spot a few years later: https://maps.app.goo.gl/U1zEKLCarC1pm5Xp9. Out in the desert, not much stuff every gets cleaned up, it just slowly turns to dust.

[tmoore952]

In a similar vein to the previous post, I have walked and biked along the parts of the abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike that are open to the public (east of Breezewood and west of (about) Hustontown). Two abandoned tunnels (Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill). And I am old enough to have been driven on that stretch of road (although I do not remember it).

[hobsini2]

When I think back to my youth, prior to I-355 being built and prior to Route 59 and Route 53 being 4 lanes in DuPage County, it took forever just to get to I-90 to go to Grandma's in Wisconsin or even to just get to Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. I also vaguely remember what Lake Shore Drive was like before the George Halas S Curve was built and how it split around the Field Museum and Soldier Field.

[Scott5114]

Out in the desert, not much stuff every gets cleaned up, it just slowly turns to dust.

And gets vandalized. Who drives out to the middle of nowhere to spray paint some old abandoned building in New Mexico?

[kphoger]

Already answered in another thread.

Who drives out to the middle of nowhere to spray paint some old abandoned building in New Mexico?

what is there to do in Tulsa anyways?

[D-Dey65]

In the East Patchogue-North Bellport area, I wouldn't mind having an old Jeep or early ATV and driving along Barton Avenue east of Fish Thicket Road and Hospital Road north of Fish Thicket Road before the former was abandoned, and the latter was paved over.

In New York City, I'd love to have seen the days when the great state routes of Long Island and Upstate New York met in Manhattan. In fact, there are some "Annoy NIMBYists with roads signs" images I can think of for that thread, which would be related to this.

[mgk920]

In the East Patchogue-North Bellport area, I wouldn't mind having an old Jeep or early ATV and driving along Barton Avenue east of Fish Thicket Road and Hospital Road north of Fish Thicket Road before the former was abandoned, and the latter was paved over.

In New York City, I'd love to have seen the days when the great state routes of Long Island and Upstate New York met in Manhattan. In fact, there are some "Annoy NIMBYists with roads signs" images I can think of for that thread, which would be related to this.

Howabout driving the original Long Island Motor Parkway from end to end?

Mike

[D-Dey65]

^
Lots of Long Islanders want that, but that might be interesting too.

[Sapphuby]

How about taking a drive in a Model T on the original alignment of the Lincoln Highway from 1913? Something in me just itches for old highways, and this just screams it.

[ilpt4u]

How about taking a drive in a Model T on the original alignment of the Lincoln Highway from 1913? Something in me just itches for old highways, and this just screams it.

If not the Lincoln Highway, how about the Dixie Highway, northeast or northwest branch down to Florida

[Henry]

Any US route that has been paved over by the Interstates, like US 40 from Salt Lake City to San Francisco.

[Max Rockatansky]

How about taking a drive in a Model T on the original alignment of the Lincoln Highway from 1913? Something in me just itches for old highways, and this just screams it.

Experiencing the absolute hell of the Dog Valley Grade or the Dutch Flat & Donner Lake Road west of Truckee would have been wild.  Even more so if you did it before the Donner Pass Rail Subway was built.  That would have required opening the snow shed and checking for trains (the more I describe this the more awesome it sounds).

Likewise the original National Old Trails Road west of Santa Fe had numerous infamous challenges.  La Bajada Hill, the Mojave Desert and Old Cajon Pass come to mind.

[cwf1701]

Woodward Ave in the 1950s between Jefferson Ave and Pontiac, before the construction of I-75 and the introduction of the Michigan Left.