What would be the Route 66 of the East?

[Laura]

My mind immediately goes towards US-1. The major reason for this, however, is due to a former roommate's family being from Alberta, VA, which was bypassed by I-85. She always felt the need to tell her family over and over that I "liked roads, you know, like route 66 and stuff." Everyone in her family always told me how they lived on the east coast version of 66, because once the interstates came in and bypassed the town, they pulled up the railroad tracks and everything died.

Weirdly enough, years later I met another family from Alberta, and I swear that they said the exact same thing verbatim.

[mightyace]

I'll also join the US 30 crowd.

The highway also roughly parallels the old Pennsylvania Railroad from Philly to near Chicago.  So, like 66 it links Chicago with a coastal area.  And, as others have mentioned, it also had many of the same kind of small motels and roadside attractions.

The only thing it is missing, IMHO is that it does not end in New York City.

[tollboothrob]

40 is definitely a great choice.  Or, in general, the National Road, alignments of which were bypassed before the US-40 designation was applied in 1926.  there are bridges that date back to the 1830s, I believe.  For sure, the 1847-1849 suspension bridge in Wheeling, WV is still around.

I second US 40, especially the old parts before I-68, now signed as Scenic US 40 and MD 144. I've driven a few sections of this, and it's a nice, serene ride, if you're used to curvy roads like I am. I also enjoy the history of and around the route.

[Roadgeek Adam]

US 50.

Must I say much?

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

I second the vote for US 80!  I've lived on this road all my life and sit back and wonder what life was like before I-20's existence.  A couple of months ago, a friend and I were checking out an overpass over the KCS tracks just west of here.  It was built in 1949, replacing a grade crossing.  We later discovered that where we parked was the site of an old gas station.  The concrete fuel islands and concrete sign base (with studs still exposed) had trees growing thru/around them.  It was a fascinating discovery.

The RR overpass on US 80 just east of the LA 139 junction near Monroe - date stamped 1936 - might be the oldest extant highway grade separation in the state (not counting over-water bridges). At least it's the oldest that I know of. (For a similar example, the Perkins Road overpass in BR is dated 1937.)

[Avalanchez71]

After Saturday's trip into Southside Virginia - and all of the great
pre-Interstate businesses we found, active and abandoned - I started to think
about the Old US 66 trip I did last spring. There are plenty of sites (motor
courts, restaurants, neon signs, small towns) and situations (bypassed by the
interstate, abandoned businesses, empty two and sometimes four lane roads)
similar to that of the revered "Mother Road".

So I have come up with five routes along with reasons for and against being the
East Coast version of Route 66.

US 1: The Backbone US Route of the East Coast - Travels through major cities
including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C.
Parallels Interstates 85 and 95 for significant portions of the route. However,
runs as an independent route from Henderson, NC to Jacksonville, FL.

US 301: Bypassed and pretty much ignored by long distanced travelers by
Interstate 95 from Richmond/Petersburg, VA to south of Florence, SC. Roadside
America attraction; South of the Border. It wasn't a major route in the 40's or
50's. Traffic south to Florida went via US 1 or the Ocean Highway.

US 29: Major US Highway serving Washington, Charlotte, and Atlanta. Parallels
and is bypassed by Interstate 85 from Greensboro, NC to Tuskegee, AL.
Unfortunately, this route doesn't have the lore of a US 1 or Route 66.

Dixie Highway (Various US Routes): It was the main route to Florida from the
Midwest and dates from the Auto Trails Era. Much of the Dixie Highway became US
Routes that would in turn fall to nearby Interstates. The numerous branches of
the Dixie Highway makes it difficult to trace a specific route.

Ocean Highway (US 13/US 17): Created to help promote tourism along the coast,
the Ocean Highway was the closest to the coast of all N/S routes. Mainly serves
small towns, cities, and resort areas. For the most part untouched by an
Interstate.

So which of these five highways do you consider as the East Coast's "Route 66"?
Or do you have another highway in mind?

I have a poll up at seroads (Southeast Roads at Y!Groups) if you wish to vote:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seroads/polls

Didn't US 301 act as sort of a bypass for US 1 for through traffic from SC to MD prior to I-95?

[bing101]

US-1 has to be the US-66 of the east.


Heck I'd go as far to say US-1 is more like the US-99 and the US-101 of east too.

[sparker]

Since this thread is now duly necro'd, I'd say a case could be made for a combination of two US highway corridors -- US 11 from its southern terminus in greater New Orleans to the Harrisburg (PA) area, then US 22 from there into metro NYC.  That composite -- and I'd characterize it as intuitive -- corridor, and its current Interstate counterparts, connects disparate regions, terminates in major (or what used to be major) metro areas, and has always served as the major commercial conduit from a major distibution area at its northeast end to a consumer center at the opposite terminus (like L.A. used to be in the days when US 66 was the "king of the hill" regarding interregional commerce in the west).  The only real historical difference was that the US 22/11 corridor never hosted a major diaspora (e.g., the Dust Bowl migratory era) as US 66 did.   

[michravera]

After Saturday's trip into Southside Virginia - and all of the great
pre-Interstate businesses we found, active and abandoned - I started to think
about the Old US 66 trip I did last spring. There are plenty of sites (motor
courts, restaurants, neon signs, small towns) and situations (bypassed by the
interstate, abandoned businesses, empty two and sometimes four lane roads)
similar to that of the revered "Mother Road".

So I have come up with five routes along with reasons for and against being the
East Coast version of Route 66.

US 1: The Backbone US Route of the East Coast - Travels through major cities
including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C.
Parallels Interstates 85 and 95 for significant portions of the route. However,
runs as an independent route from Henderson, NC to Jacksonville, FL.

US 301: Bypassed and pretty much ignored by long distanced travelers by
Interstate 95 from Richmond/Petersburg, VA to south of Florence, SC. Roadside
America attraction; South of the Border. It wasn't a major route in the 40's or
50's. Traffic south to Florida went via US 1 or the Ocean Highway.

US 29: Major US Highway serving Washington, Charlotte, and Atlanta. Parallels
and is bypassed by Interstate 85 from Greensboro, NC to Tuskegee, AL.
Unfortunately, this route doesn't have the lore of a US 1 or Route 66.

Dixie Highway (Various US Routes): It was the main route to Florida from the
Midwest and dates from the Auto Trails Era. Much of the Dixie Highway became US
Routes that would in turn fall to nearby Interstates. The numerous branches of
the Dixie Highway makes it difficult to trace a specific route.

Ocean Highway (US 13/US 17): Created to help promote tourism along the coast,
the Ocean Highway was the closest to the coast of all N/S routes. Mainly serves
small towns, cities, and resort areas. For the most part untouched by an
Interstate.

So which of these five highways do you consider as the East Coast's "Route 66"?
Or do you have another highway in mind?

I have a poll up at seroads (Southeast Roads at Y!Groups) if you wish to vote:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seroads/polls

What route goes or went from Boston to New Orleans? From Minneapolis to Miami?

One of the important features of Route 66 is that it made sort of a L-shaped bend and seemed deliberately to run through all towns both large and small. I'm not sure that you will find an eastern equivalent.

[Gnutella]

Having driven US 30 from Joliet IL to Pittsburgh in one trip, i vote for US 30.  Large stretches of Old 30 are still around and if 30 ever does become an interstate (say I-76), then 30 is exactly like 66.  Lots of small towns that get bypasses and still important enough to the backbone of the American Midwest.  It is scenic. It has history, most of it being the Lincoln Highway.

A second one I would nominate is US 41.  Think of the different phases that 41 takes as it travels from Miami to the UP.  And going through Tampa, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago and Milwaukee.  Just those 5 cities having such a different flavor of their own.

U.S. 30 is significant in Pennsylvania and New Jersey too. It passes through Pittsburgh and near the Monongahela River Valley, which was once the industrial backbone of the U.S. After that, it passes through Latrobe, which is the hometown of Arnold Palmer, Mister Rogers, Rolling Rock beer, and St. Vincent College, where the Pittsburgh Steelers have their training camp every summer. Then it enters the Laurel Highlands, passing Idlewild Park, Ligonier and Fort Ligonier, before passing over Laurel Ridge.

Past Laurel Ridge, U.S. 30 passes the Flight 93 National Memorial, and then descends the Allegheny Front toward Bedford. Past Bedford, it passes through Breezewood and over multiple mountain ridges into McConnellsburg and Chambersburg, and then it passes over South Mountain, which is the northernmost extent of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the junction of the Appalachian Trail.

Past South Mountain, U.S. 30 passes through Gettysburg, with all its Civil War history, and then through York, Lancaster, and the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. After that, it becomes the Main Line, passing through several of the richest suburbs of Philadelphia before entering the city itself. In Philadelphia, it passes the Philadelphia Zoo, and runs concurrent with I-676 past the north end of Center City, between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Philadelphia City Hall, before crossing the Benjamin Franklin Bridge into New Jersey.

In New Jersey, U.S. 30 passes through Camden, which is beginning to revitalize, and then past Haddonfield, and through suburbia into the swamps of South Jersey. Finally, it reaches its eastern terminus in Atlantic City, just a few blocks from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on the beach.

[Roadgeekteen]

I would say US 1.

[Occidental Tourist]

US 41

[TheGrassGuy]

I had thought that there was an alignment of MA-62 that was called "Boston Post Road".  Is that a different road, coming from Albany perhaps?

Perhaps, or from Vermont, or from anywhere in that region. There's also a Boston Post Road in Amherst, New Hampshire.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_Post_Road_map.png seems to be a reasonable map of the New York-Boston routes.

Remember that a post road was simply the route that the post took, which could be shifted to serve towns not on the original route. I've seen a map that shows an additional route coming up through eastern Connecticut and then east to Providence.

Later the "Boston Post Road" was a semi-official auto trail, using an updated version of the southern route (hence using a bunch of turnpikes that had not existed when the route was first laid out). Through continuous changes, this has become US 1.


If anything, I'd probably say US 1, from DC to Boston at least, is certainly a contender. Those who delight at finding old alignments of Route 66 and its predecessor trails would positively delight at all the old alignments of old alignments of old alignments of old alignments of US 1.

It sounds like I'm putting together a modern-day National Old Trails Road (which seems to have become US 1, US 240, US 40, US 50, US 350, US 85, and US 66).

Didn't the old Boston Post Rd begin in NYC, and isn't the road in the Bronx now known as Boston Rd?

[Flint1979]

I'm going to go with US-41. I felt the vibe of this highway as far north as it's northern terminus and have a lot of the route covered in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana and it keeps this vibe as it goes through downtown Chicago on Lake Shore Drive probably one of the best skyline views in the world.

US-30 has the same vibe to it.

[TheGrassGuy]

I'm going to go with US-41. I felt the vibe of this highway as far north as it's northern terminus and have a lot of the route covered in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana and it keeps this vibe as it goes through downtown Chicago on Lake Shore Drive probably one of the best skyline views in the world.

US-30 has the same vibe to it.

Oh no, you're missing the best parts of US-41.

I would think of US-41 as a hot but adventurous blonde girl who loves taking road trips in her Buick with her younger sister US-441 and her boyfriend I-75. She lives in Chicago, but she spends so much time in sunny old Florida that it might as well be her second home. She likes country music. She's been to many places, from Atlanta, Nashville, Chattanooga, Milwaukee, and the lonesome tippy top of Michigan.

Her twin brother, I-41, however, ain't such a globetrotter. He's built up a homely existence around the Badger State, where he grew up after being separated from his sister at birth. He hardly ever sets foot out of the state he lives in, save for one brief jaunt into Illinois. They've argued often about football.

[planxtymcgillicuddy]

I'd say US-1. Sure, it may not have the lure and charm like Route 66, but it's still just as important to the region as 66 was to the west and midwest

[capt.ron]

Having driven US 30 from Joliet IL to Pittsburgh in one trip, i vote for US 30.  Large stretches of Old 30 are still around and if 30 ever does become an interstate (say I-76), then 30 is exactly like 66.  Lots of small towns that get bypasses and still important enough to the backbone of the American Midwest.  It is scenic. It has history, most of it being the Lincoln Highway.

A second one I would nominate is US 41.  Think of the different phases that 41 takes as it travels from Miami to the UP.  And going through Tampa, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago and Milwaukee.  Just those 5 cities having such a different flavor of their own.

I would agree. US 41 was even mentioned in Allman Bros. Rambling Man and is more than likely the main trunk of the Dixie Highway. US 27 is akin to 41's distant cousin and serves various small and medium towns and cities in western Georgia. Those two highways never venture too far from one another (Georgia & Florida) until the routes part ways heading northward beginning in Tennessee. The old alignment of 27 in northwest Georgia also is one of the branch routes of the Dixie Highway.

[Scott5114]

I don't think that there is, nor can there be, a Route 66 of the East. What makes Route 66 special is not anything particular to the road, its importance, or anything inherent to the routing itself, but that it's a time capsule of a 1950s road trip, complete with kitschy roadside attractions and the corpses of pre-Interstate businesses lining the way. For something to be Route 66 it needs to have things like the Round Barn and the Blue Whale. (Outdated bridges also help.)

The closest thing to that the East has is South of the Border, and that's a one-off. If there's a road that the East has that has a South of the Border-like thing every 5 miles or so, then that is the Route 66 of the East.

[Dirt Roads]

I don't think that there is, nor can there be, a Route 66 of the East. What makes Route 66 special is not anything particular to the road, its importance, or anything inherent to the routing itself, but that it's a time capsule of a 1950s road trip, complete with kitschy roadside attractions and the corpses of pre-Interstate businesses lining the way. For something to be Route 66 it needs to have things like the Round Barn and the Blue Whale. (Outdated bridges also help.)

The closest thing to that the East has is South of the Border, and that's a one-off. If there's a road that the East has that has a South of the Border-like thing every 5 miles or so, then that is the Route 66 of the East.

Sounds like a defacto vote for US-301.  Not an obvious choice that I would gravitate to, but actually a very good candidate.  The route from Richmond to Gainesville had a good number of roadside Americana.  And it's the only long route that I've actually clinched (until improvements on both ends unclinched it).

[The Nature Boy]

I don't think that there is, nor can there be, a Route 66 of the East. What makes Route 66 special is not anything particular to the road, its importance, or anything inherent to the routing itself, but that it's a time capsule of a 1950s road trip, complete with kitschy roadside attractions and the corpses of pre-Interstate businesses lining the way. For something to be Route 66 it needs to have things like the Round Barn and the Blue Whale. (Outdated bridges also help.)

The closest thing to that the East has is South of the Border, and that's a one-off. If there's a road that the East has that has a South of the Border-like thing every 5 miles or so, then that is the Route 66 of the East.

Sounds like a defacto vote for US-301.  Not an obvious choice that I would gravitate to, but actually a very good candidate.  The route from Richmond to Gainesville had a good number of roadside Americana.  And it's the only long route that I've actually clinched (until improvements on both ends unclinched it).

An argument could be made for US-301 to the US 1 intersection in Petersburg, VA and then continuing from Petersburg up to Maine.

Basically the routing that got replaced by I-95.

[Konza]

I'll cast a vote for US 11 here.

Diagonal route, replaced by more than one interstate, but alll of its length excerpt across the roof of New York has been replaced by an almost parallel Interstate route.

[J3ebrules]

I don't think that there is, nor can there be, a Route 66 of the East. What makes Route 66 special is not anything particular to the road, its importance, or anything inherent to the routing itself, but that it's a time capsule of a 1950s road trip, complete with kitschy roadside attractions and the corpses of pre-Interstate businesses lining the way. For something to be Route 66 it needs to have things like the Round Barn and the Blue Whale. (Outdated bridges also help.)

The closest thing to that the East has is South of the Border, and that's a one-off. If there's a road that the East has that has a South of the Border-like thing every 5 miles or so, then that is the Route 66 of the East.

See, that's why I think US 30 works - as the former Lincoln Highway, there ARE a lot of kitschy roadside attractions that sprang up around it. Check a Lincoln Hwy guidebook - even though the Americana it represents is a bit further back in time by a couple of decades, it's still very much roadside Americana like 66.

[sturmde]

US-1 is really the only choice, because before it was US-1 it was New England Interstate route 1, with the intent to have it continue eastward along the Lincoln Highway.  Imagine if we'd gotten a Canada to California Route 1 by adding the NEI-1 to the LH.
.
Also, few even in Maine remember that US 1 originally went along the route of today's 1A through Bangor.  There was no bridge across the Penobscot south of Bangor.  And the US 1 one that's there now is impressively the tallest bridge with an observation tower you can go up in on.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penobscot_Narrows_Bridge_and_Observatory
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All the small seaport and summer towns along the coasts of ME, NH, and MA north of Boston are great, along with all the older 1A's and other Old Route 1s.  Then there are the Boston Post Road segments, the original routings of US 1 through NYC and over the GW.  NJ has the old segments to Trenton, and then you've got more colonial cities between there and Richmond.  What's not to love?
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You keep going south along the "Fall Line" where the bugs are always worst east of US 1 until you get to Jacksonville and back to the Florida coast.
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And finishing with Miami to Key West.  What's not to love?  One of my favorite FreewayJim videos: https://youtu.be/dGj0B4co2ug
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US 1, hands down.
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BTW. US 301 is a pale imitation.  Now, if they'd added 301 and 202 into a single route -- a US 3 (making the original US 3 into US 103) that stretched Bangor to Sarasota... we might could talk.

[froggie]

(I have this book in my collection)