Road Trips Exhibition
A Brief History of Route 66
In the late 1800s individual cities and booster organizations or clubs began building their own roads using a variety of materials like dirt, gravel, wood, and brick. None of these materials were especially durable, and roads would frequently flood or become impassable mud. There was no standardization interms of lane size, grading, or markers. As a result, the roads varied highly in quality and stopped and started in strange places.
In the early 1920s the federal government began discussing the possibility of a national system of highways with standardized construction methods and a numbering system. In 1926 Congress passed the Federal Highway Act, which standardized highway construction and numbering across the country. Cyrus Avery, an Oklahoma businessman, was responsible for creating the alignment for U.S. Highway 66, aka Route 66. The alignment of Route 66 was unique as it ran diagonally across the country instead of straight east-west, and it followed several different historic trails and the alignment of various rail lines instead of just one. By December 1937 the section of Route 66 that ran through New Mexico was completely paved.
Early travel along Route 66 was difficult as there were few amenities available to travelers. As motor travel increased along Route 66, residents of the towns along the way saw that catering to the needs of travelers was a good way to make a living. Gas stations, diners, and motels grew up along the way in response to demand from motorists. The end of World War II through the 1950s marked the heyday of travel along Route 66. Roadside businesses along the highway boomed, and competition between owners became fierce. It is through this competition that the iconic neon signs and crazy architecture common along Route 66 began to flourish.
The huge boom in traffic along Route 66 brought increased damage to the road, overcrowding and delays, and an increased number of traffic accidents. The decline of Route 66 began in 1956 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act creating the modern interstate system, and making Route 66 obsolete. The new interstate system was a limited access highway, maning one could only enter and exit at designated areas, and as a result, many towns would be completely bypassed, having no entrance or exit ramp to the interstate. Getting bypassed by the interstate meant the death of many small towns that depended on business from travelers and tourists. Many business owners along Route 66 can remember the exact day their town was bypassed because the change in the amount of traffic was so drastic.
Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985. The final section of Route 66 to be bypassed was in Williams, Arizona in 1980. Route 66 Associations that helped fight to keep Route 66 open changed their focus to promote Route 66 as an opportunity for tourism. Now motorists can see plaques for "historic Route 66" marking the location of old alignments of "America's Main Street." Rouet 66 clubs and tour groups take annual trips, and there is a large population of international Route 66 enthusiasts in places like Germany, France, and even Japan. The story of Route 66 even inspired the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. Although it was realigned, decomissioned, and paved over, Route 66 is still alive and an important part of New Mexico history.
A Brief History of the Interstate System
The idea of a modern interstate system was first presented to the public at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. At the World's Fair the Ford Pavilion and Futurama by GM showed visitors a vision of modern life in which people lived in suburbs and commuted to work in the city on enormous highways. Ford and GM presented this lifestyle as a solution to "the urban problem," namely the overcrowding of major cities. Over the course of the next 50 years, the visions of the future presented at the Ford Pavilion and Futurama became reality.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was among the many Americans who felt the national highway system had become outdated. Eisenhower rode on the German Autobahn during World War II, and decided the United States needed to design a similar system of roads. He believed that good roads were essential to national defense, especially as a means of evacuating major cities under the threat of nuclear attack. In 1956 Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act that budgeted $25 billion over 12 years to construct 41,000 miles of limited-access interstates.
The interstate system was the largest public works project in history and more land was taken by eminent domain that ever before. And although the general public clamored for better roads, the government had to convince people that the interstates would be a good idea. This was an especially difficult task in the small towns that were scheduled to be bypassed. Many small towns and local business owners banded together to fight the interstates. The civil rights and social movements of the 1960s made people aware of the social effects of the interstate system. It was often poor neighborhoods that we destroyed to make room for the interstate, and more often than not these neighborhoods were populated by ethnic minorities. Grassroots organizations began to protest the destruction of historically significant areas and the negative environmental impact. The federal government eventually recognized the importance of these movements, and even began giving awards for aesthetic and environmentally friendly highway designs.
By March, 1970, 30,000 miles of the interstate system were complete. The entire interstate system took longer to build and cost much more than was originally anticipated. Over the years new bills were signed and taxes were increased to continue to pay for its construction and maintenance. New Mexico began construction on its three interstates (I-10, I-40, and I-25) in 1957. I-40 replaced Route 66, and in many places closely followed the alignment of the old highway. By 1981 the entire interstate system in New Mexico was completed.