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Daily History

June 27 1985 Route 66 decertified


On June 27th 1985, after 59 years, the iconic Route 66 entered the realm of history, when the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials decertified the road and voted to remove all its highway signs.

Measuring some 2,200 miles in its heyday, Route 66 stretched from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, passing through eight states. According to a New York Times article about its decertification, most of Route 66 followed a path through the wilderness forged in 1857 by U.S. Navy Lieutenant Edward Beale at the head of a caravan of camels. Over the years, wagon trains and cattlemen eventually made way for trucks and passenger automobiles.

The idea of building a highway along this route surfaced in Oklahoma in the mid-1920s as a way to link the state to cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. Highway Commissioner Cyrus S. Avery touted it as a way of diverting traffic from Kansas City, Missouri and Denver. In 1926, the highway earned its official designation as Route 66.

The diagonal course of Route 66 linked hundreds of mostly rural communities to the cities along its route, allowing farmers to more easily transport grain and other types of produce for distribution. The highway was also a lifeline for the long-distance trucking industry, which by 1930 was competing with the railroad for dominance in the shipping market.

Route 66 was the scene of a mass westward migration during the 1930s, when more than 200,000 people traveled from the poverty-stricken Dust Bowl to California. John Steinbeck immortalized the highway, which he called the “Mother Road,” in his classic 1939 novel “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Beginning in the 1950s, the building of a massive system of interstate highways made older roads increasingly obsolete, and by 1970, modern four-lane highways had bypassed nearly all sections of Route 66. In October 1984, Interstate-40 bypassed the last original stretch of Route 66 at Williams, Arizona, and the following year the road was decertified. According to the National Historic Route 66 Federation, drivers can still use 85 percent of the road, and Route 66 has become a destination for tourists from all over the world.

Often called the “Main Street of America,” Route 66 became a pop culture mainstay over the years, inspiring its own song (written in 1947 by Bobby Troup, “Route 66” was later recorded by artists as varied as Nat “King” Cole, Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones) as well as a 1960s television series. More recently, the historic highway was featured prominently in the hit animated film “Cars” (2006).

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About Craig Hill

Social Justice Campaigner, Writer, Teacher and Business Consultant. Lived in China and USA. Dealing with disability. My articles have been cited in New York Times, BBC, Fox News, Aljazeera, Philippines Star, South China Morning Post, National Interest, news.com.au, Wikipedia and many other international publications. Please consider donating, to support our social justice campaign, by clicking on the "Donations Page" button in the top menu.

Discussion

7 thoughts on “June 27 1985 Route 66 decertified

  1. Reblogged this on usbanter and commented:
    Cool. Thanks for this history lesson!

    Posted by usbanter | June 27, 2012, 14:32
  2. I’ve traveled some parts of this road about 15 years ago. Nice piece of information.

    Posted by The Rev. Deirdre Whitfield | June 27, 2012, 22:01
  3. Would love to do that trip … but I don’t think it will happen … need a good driver *smile Brilliant post !

    Posted by viveka | June 28, 2012, 03:20
  4. Sad, I think a lot of people have wished to travel this great historic route. My personal dream is to travel it on a motorbike – a big Harley Davidson of course! Hope I still get the chance someday. Cheers.

    Posted by supernova | June 28, 2012, 04:24
  5. Thanks, Craig, I’ll be linking to this on July 4.

    Posted by Gregoryno6 | June 30, 2012, 20:03

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Pingback: This Day In History For June 27, Route 66. Mil Sentinel and More | Wis U.P. North - June 27, 2012

  2. Pingback: Bonus for the Fourth: Australians explore Route 66. « The mind is an unexplored country. - July 4, 2012

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