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The Transportation
act of 1921, a Federal Highway Act passed by Congress November 9 begins to coordinate
state highways and to standardize U.S. road-building practice.
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Cyrus Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and John Woodruff of Springfield,
Missouri deserve most of the credit for promoting the idea of an interregional link
between Chicago and Los Angeles, their lobbying efforts were realized when their
dream merged with the national program of highway and road development. |
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while legislation for public highways first appeared in 1916, with revisions in 1921, it
was not until Congress enacted an even more comprehensive version of the act in 1925 that
the government executed its plan for national highway construction.
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Officially,
the numerical designation 66 was assigned to the Chicago-to-Los Angeles route in the
fall of 1926. With that designation came its acknowledgment as one of the nation's
principal east-west arteries.
From the
outset, public road planners intended U.S. 66 to connect the main streets of rural and
urban communities along its course for the most practical of reasons: most small towns had
no prior access to a major national thoroughfare.
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In 1932 U.S. Route 66
opened to link Chicago and
Los Angeles with a 2,400-mile continuous highway that will be called the "Main Street
of America." Soon lined with motor courts, Burma-Shave signs, two-pump service
stations, and curio shops, Route 66 carries truckers and motorists west via St. Louis,
Joplin, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, Flagstaff, Winona, Kingman, Barstow, and San
Bernardino.
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Route 66 was a highway spawned by the demands of a rapidly changing America.
Contrasted with the Lincoln, the Dixie, and other highways of its day, route 66 did not
follow a traditionally linear course. Its diagonal course linked hundreds of
predominately rural communities in Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas to Chicago; thus
enabling farmers to transport grain and produce for redistribution. The diagonal
configuration of Route 66 was particularly significant to the trucking industry, which by
1930 had come to rival the railroad for preeminence in the American shipping industry.
The abbreviated route between Chicago and the Pacific coast traversed essentially
flat prairie lands and enjoyed a more temperate climate than northern highways, which made
it especially appealing to truckers.
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Route 66 History Page 2