Why didn't US 66 go all the way to New York?

[hbelkins]

Maybe it's because I never read "Grapes of Wrath," but I never got caught up in the US 66 mystique. And the song wasn't that great of a tune, anyway. I honestly don't get the nostalgia around it.

Why is no one shedding any tears for US 80 west of Dallas or US 21 north of Wytheville or US 25 north of Cincinnati?

[froggie]

Why is no one shedding any tears for US 80 west of Dallas or US 21 north of Wytheville or US 25 north of Cincinnati?

Because none of those routes are as symbolic of the cultural and economic struggle that was US 66 during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era...

[jwolfer]

Maybe it's because I never read "Grapes of Wrath," but I never got caught up in the US 66 mystique. And the song wasn't that great of a tune, anyway. I honestly don't get the nostalgia around it.

Why is no one shedding any tears for US 80 west of Dallas or US 21 north of Wytheville or US 25 north of Cincinnati?

I think part of the reason is us 66 is totally gone.. Sort of like us 99.. 21 and 25 still exist

[The Nature Boy]

I'm a total easterner so I never got the whole US 66 mystique at all either.

I would probably be torn to shreds though if I-95 were decommissioned since I've literally lived at or near its extreme north and southern ends and even along spots in the middle. So I guess I kind of understand it somewhat.

Of course, the odds of I-95 completely disappearing in my lifetime are slim to none.

[SP Cook]

Because none of those routes are as symbolic of the cultural and economic struggle that was US 66 during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era...

Again, not really.  Multiple migrations of people, both before and after the Depression.  Blacks and whites using the routes along the Mississippi to the north.  Appalachians using roads into the industrial Midwest.  People one up or one down the grid using different routes to California.  Multiple.  One just got in a novel and rhymed in a song. 

[The Nature Boy]

Because none of those routes are as symbolic of the cultural and economic struggle that was US 66 during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era...

Again, not really.  Multiple migrations of people, both before and after the Depression.  Blacks and whites using the routes along the Mississippi to the north.  Appalachians using roads into the industrial Midwest.  People one up or one down the grid using different routes to California.  Multiple.  One just got in a novel and rhymed in a song.

A lot of African Americans from the coastal South also used US 1, US 301 and later I-95 to migrate to the Northeast. I would argue that US 1 is a much more iconic US highway than US 66, especially considering the cities that it runs through.

[hbelkins]

Because none of those routes are as symbolic of the cultural and economic struggle that was US 66 during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era...

Again, not really.  Multiple migrations of people, both before and after the Depression.  Blacks and whites using the routes along the Mississippi to the north.  Appalachians using roads into the industrial Midwest.  People one up or one down the grid using different routes to California.  Multiple.  One just got in a novel and rhymed in a song.

Lots of Kentuckians moved to Michigan, including much of my mother-in-law's family.

In the Big Sandy Valley, there was a saying: Readin', 'ritin' and Route 23.  Farther to the southwest, the route number in the saying was 25.

[wphiii]

I think part of the reason is us 66 is totally gone..

This is definitely a huge factor. America invented the concept of the Road Trip, which became a huge part of our cultural legacy. U.S. 66 itself may not have been uniquely important among numbered routes, but its complete extinction, unlike most of the other major routes, so aptly symbolizes the transition we made during the latter half of the 20th century to the way we travel now, which for most people happens in a vacuum whenever possible. The fact that it's totally gone serves as a more jarring reminder that we're moving further and further from our heritage, which makes it a logical target for such eulogizing.

This isn't to say that the kitsch and over-commercialization aren't extremely unfortunate, of course.

[wphiii]

Again, not really.  Multiple migrations of people, both before and after the Depression.  Blacks and whites using the routes along the Mississippi to the north.  Appalachians using roads into the industrial Midwest.  People one up or one down the grid using different routes to California.  Multiple.  One just got in a novel and rhymed in a song.

I will say that there is something about specifically moving west, though, that is so ingrained in the American ethos that it elevates Route 66 above the southeast-to-northeast industrial migration routes, etc.

[Laura]

Because none of those routes are as symbolic of the cultural and economic struggle that was US 66 during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era...

Again, not really.  Multiple migrations of people, both before and after the Depression.  Blacks and whites using the routes along the Mississippi to the north.  Appalachians using roads into the industrial Midwest.  People one up or one down the grid using different routes to California.  Multiple.  One just got in a novel and rhymed in a song. 

That's the point of US 66 being a SYMBOL. Of course there were other routes, no one doubts that. But US 66 captures the spirit of and stands for the Dust Bowl era of time better than other routes.

It's kind of like how Willa Cather's novel "My Antonia" is a quintessential novel about life and coming of age on the prairie in the 1880's in Black Hawk, Nebraska (based directly on Red Cloud, Nebraska). By no means is Red Cloud, Nebraska the only prairie town, but the experiences captured by her in the novel are so typical that they could be identified with any prairie town. Red Cloud (in the form of Black Hawk) becomes a symbol of prairie life.

[ET21]

I'm a total easterner so I never got the whole US 66 mystique at all either.

I live maybe 20 minutes from the eastern terminus and I never got it either. Only mention for me of US 66 would be the historical marker signs along the route in the Chicagoland area I see and being a fan of the movie Cars

[WashuOtaku]

US 66 is a lot more popular because it doesn't exist anymore, since I-40 and I-44 replaced it.  US 66 represents a bygone era and before that the Lincoln Highway, which does go from New York to California (San Francisco, which at the time was an equally big city).

[cjk374]

Why is no one shedding any tears for US 80 west of Dallas or US 21 north of Wytheville or US 25 north of Cincinnati?

  I have shed tears for US 80 since I found out about its truncations.  I have always wanted to trace the original route west of Dallas, but I understand you really won't see much of the original route because I-8 and I-10 ate it up...similar to US 66 and I-40 and I-44.   

"Old 80" (what the older folks have always called the road...I guess compared to "new" I-20) is my favorite highway because I have lived on it all my life.  I have been to Tybee Island, GA and seen 80's eastern end, but haven't seen alot of the highway.  It is on my bucket list, as well as running US 66.

[Scott5114]

It's not just because it's gone that US 66 is popular. US 66 has had a lot more of its historic landmarks preserved from the pre-Interstate era than any other route. Whereas on US 60 you might run across an abandoned Standard station or some old kitschy mom-and-pop restaurant, on US 66 you will find one in every town. The route is full of landmarks like the Round Barn in Arcadia, OK and the Blue Whale in Catoosa, OK. When new development occurs along US 66 it is very often aware of this fact and tries to duplicate the nostalgic feel.

You can argue that a lot of this is artificial, impractical schlock, and to be fair, it kind of is. But nobody who has been on an appreciably long stretch of US 66 can deny that it gives the road a character that you don't find on any other route.

Look at it this way: US 66 is roadgeeking boiled down and made acceptable to the masses. The same kick we roadgeeks get out of looking at a topo and guessing where an old US 64 alignment is, the non-roadgeek population gets by following a US 66 guidebook. We're going to think US 66 is silly because it presents no challenge and no chance of discovering the unknown. Non-roadgeeks don't care about any of that because US 66 is the unknown to them.

[bugo]

You can argue that a lot of this is artificial, impractical schlock, and to be fair, it kind of is. But nobody who has been on an appreciably long stretch of US 66 can deny that it gives the road a character that you don't find on any other route.

I don't agree. I've done long stretches of old 66 and it doesn't seem like any other bypassed highway other than the tackiness. The stretches in Missouri are nice, but no nicer than other bypassed roads in the same area. I would argue that the other highways are more interesting because there is less traffic, especially tourist traffic, than 66. They feel lonely, while 66 is still abuzz with life.

Look at it this way: US 66 is roadgeeking boiled down and made acceptable to the masses. The same kick we roadgeeks get out of looking at a topo and guessing where an old US 64 alignment is, the non-roadgeek population gets by following a US 66 guidebook. We're going to think US 66 is silly because it presents no challenge and no chance of discovering the unknown. Non-roadgeeks don't care about any of that because US 66 is the unknown to them.

The difference is that road enthusiasts care about the road itself, while the general public cares about what is along the road. Pick up a typical 66 book and it will likely have information about the Round Barn but no information on the actual highway.

[The Nature Boy]

What was along US 1 before I-95 existed?

In the pre-interstate era, it was THE connection between the major cities on the east coast. It doesn't have the allure of "going west" (which I think is a load of BS anyway) but it was the most important road economically in the pre-interstate era.

[DTComposer]

It doesn't have the allure of "going west" (which I think is a load of BS anyway)

You're saying that you think a huge chunk of American history, from the original Northwest Territory, to the Louisiana Purchase, to the Manifest Destiny, to the Gold Rush, to the escape from the Dust Bowl, to the rise of the Sun Belt, is BS?

[NE2]

Manifest destiny is BS.

[Pete from Boston]

Manifest destiny is BS.

You Whigs are all the same. 

[The Nature Boy]

It doesn't have the allure of "going west" (which I think is a load of BS anyway)

You're saying that you think a huge chunk of American history, from the original Northwest Territory, to the Louisiana Purchase, to the Manifest Destiny, to the Gold Rush, to the escape from the Dust Bowl, to the rise of the Sun Belt, is BS?

The history isn't, but our obsession with it is. The West is not and never has been a land of great promise, it's a place just like any other place. There are good and bad parts of it. Our historical preoccupation with it has always struck me as weird.

Then again, when I move, it tends to be north and south. I've lived in the extreme northern end of the east coast and the extreme southern end (with a little bit of time spent in the eastern Midwest). Maybe I've yet to join the 18th century and grasp the allure of just going west.

[bugo]

The West is not and never has been a land of great promise

It was for the '49ers.

[Henry]

The West is not and never has been a land of great promise

It was for the '49ers.

And it still is, for anyone wanting to go Hollywood.

[DTComposer]

The history isn't, but our obsession with it is. The West is not and never has been a land of great promise

For you, perhaps. But the millions upon millions of people who have participated in westward migration (including, I will assume, your ancestors who came west from the "Old World" at some point) for all myriad of reasons over the generations would disagree with you. Now, whether it has lived up to those promises is another story.

And remember, definition of "The West" has been consistently changing over the centuries. For Vikings, Columbus, the Pilgrims, et al, The West meant across the Atlantic. For Colonials, it meant over the Appalachians. Later, it meant across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Westward movement has been a part of not just American history, but European history for the last 1000 years. US 66 happens to represent a small portion of that which, by luck of timing and nostalgia, resonates in the public psyche the same way Columbus and the Gold Rush does.

Now that the continent (and the world) have been fully "discovered," and transportation and communication technology make it easier to live and connect almost anywhere, we're seeing a dispersal of population growth more evenly across the country, and in succeeding generations perhaps the notion of "going West" as a symbol of promise, hope and growth will fade into the history books.

[Pete from Boston]

And remember, definition of "The West" has been consistently changing over the centuries. For Vikings, Columbus, the Pilgrims, et al, The West meant across the Atlantic. For Colonials, it meant over the Appalachians. Later, it meant across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.

For a lot of New Yorkers today, it means Hoboken.

[Duke87]

The earliest memory I have of encountering US 66 as a cultural thing was when I saw A Goofy Movie I noted that in the scene where Max tells Goofy to go left to go to Los Angeles, the overhead sign is a diagrammatic for a split between US 66 east and US 66 west, and they are in the middle of the desert. This therefore embedded in my mind the motif of US 66 as "a road through the desert that goes to Los Angeles".

I then started noticing how US 66 shields would show up in restaurants, advertisements, and such. But this road did not exist on any map I had (since it was completely decommissioned before I was born), so I for several years assumed it was just folklore, a fantasy that symbolized the great American road trip. It wasn't until I was in 7th grade and discovered the existence of websites about roads that I learned US 66 was once in the past a real thing. I not only found this surprising, I also found it surprising that it went all the way to Chicago since the imagery I had in my mind was of southwestern desert with cacti and whatnot, and it just seemed weird that this road would also exist in the midwest but no one ever depicted US 66 shields with farms.

Meanwhile, today as an adult, having traveled to places that old route 66 passed through, I have to say... the reality is a lot more mundane than the fantasy. It's a road, sure, but it offers neither the most beautiful scenery nor the most interesting infrastructure. And all of those cacti and eroded gorges you often see in the imagery... yeah, sorry, there's very little of that along the route of old 66. False advertising.


Maybe this is hometown bias but I find US 1 to be a much more genuinely interesting thing in the real world. It has history (Boston Post Road), it has a lot of little old towns along its route, it stretches from the southern tip of Florida to the northern tip of Maine (this making it a truly complete route with no fathomable extensions), and it has the perfect number since surely something with the number 1 assigned to it must be of utmost importance.