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From 1933 to 1938 thousands
of unemployed male youths from virtually every state were put to work as laborers on road
gangs to pave the final stretches of the road. As a result of this monumental effort, the
Chicago-to-Los Angeles highway was reported as "continuously paved" in 1938. |
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| Completion of this all-weather capability on the eve of
World War II was particularly significant to the nation's war effort. The experience
of a young Army captain, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who found his command bogged down in spring
mud near Ft. Riley, Kansas, while on a coast-to-coast maneuver, left an indelible
impression. The War Department needed improved highways for rapid mobilization
during wartime and to promote national defense during peacetime. At the outset of
American involvement in World War II, the War Department singled out the West as ideal for
military training bases in part because of its geographic isolation and especially because
it offered consistently dry weather for air and field maneuvers.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Route 66
helped to facilitate the single greatest wartime manpower mobilization in the history of
the nation. Between 1941 and 1945 the government invested approximately $70 billion
in capital projects throughout California, a large portion of which were in the Los
Angeles-San Diego area. This enormous capital outlay served to underwrite entirely
new industries that created thousands of civilian jobs.
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