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California Historic Route 66 Corridor Management Plan: from Needles

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California Historic Route 66 Corridor Management Plan: from Needles California Historic Route 66 CMP: Needles to Barstow Page 27 3. Qualities of Historic Route 66 Historic Route 66 is significant as the nation’s first all-weather highway linking Chicago to Los Angeles. The route was designated U.S. Highway 66 in November 1926, and was part of the first nationally designated highway system. More widely known as Route 66, the romance and nostalgia of the road was popularized in story, song, film and television. Nicknamed as the “Mother Road” in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Route 66 became a principle east-west highway in America’s westward expansion. Historic Route 66: “represents an outstanding example of the transition from dirt track to superhighway. Not only does Route 66 underscore the importance of the automobile as a technological achievement, but, perhaps equally important to the American psyche, it symbolized unprecedented freedom and mobility for every citizen who could afford to own and operate a car.”1 Historic Route 66 between Needles and Barstow is one of the more unique sections of its entire national route. Its distinct engineering and roadside features were adapted to the difficult Mojave Desert conditions. Its unique characteristics include the following primary elements. • The Road Itself Construction of Route 66 required some unique adaptations to the desert environment, including the extensive number of wooden trestle bridges across the desert washes and the introduction of berms to divert runoff from washing out the highway. Figure 14 Original timber bridge design • Support for the Traveler Restaurants, motels, tourist courts, service garages, gas stations, and other tourist and auto businesses sprung up along Route 66 to serve the growing numbers of travelers migrating across the desert to Los Angeles, or later, escaping the rapidly growing city for recreation and leisure. The resulting pattern of commercial development along the highway represented a broader societal trend in commercial enterprise. Figure 15 Route 66 near Amboy • Roadside Attractions Encouraging roadside travelers to stop and stay awhile has been a fascination along Route 66 since it began. The resulting roadside attractions exemplify the types of commercial enterprises that enticed travelers into communities as they headed towards recreation and entertainment destinations along the route. • Roadside Architecture The design of the roadside architecture exemplified the Figure 16 Union 76 Station in Needles modern aesthetic associated with the speed and freedom of the automobile. The architecture of many of the motels, service stations, and restaurants along the route functioned at a scale which the passengers in fast moving vehicles could understand. 1 National Park Service, Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program accessed at http://www. nps.gov/rt66/HistSig/index.htm, February 12, 2014 May 2015 Chapter 3: Intrinsic Qualities Page 28 California Historic Route 66 CMP: Needles to Barstow Although this section of the route is unique for the elements noted above, it also played a significant role in shaping the culture and society of Southern California and the nation, including its role in migration, commerce, industrial development, military training, and logistics and deployment. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Historic Features Map Route 66 is significant in American history as one of the earliest and Descriptions and most important highways linking the population centers east of the Mississippi River with California or somewhere along the way. For the locations of Easterners, headed for the Southwest, traveled along Route 66 historic and cultural through Chicago, St. Louis and Oklahoma City. features associated with Route 66 see Appendix II, The designation of Route 66 in 1926, signified the nation’s growing Map 3: Historic Features (3 commitment to improved transportation arteries and increased panels). For descriptions influence of the automobile on American lifestyles. From 1926 to of each site and more 1937, Route 66 was transformed from interconnecting segments of detailed photographs, see Appendix III, paved, gravel and dirt roads into one continuous paved highway Historical Resources. Both connecting Chicago, Illinois in the east, to Santa Monica, California appendices can be found in the west. With Route 66’s growing prominence, hundreds of at http://cmp.route66ca. businesses were created along the highway to cater to travelers org and tourists. As a result, Route 66 had a transformative effect on the American landscape through which it passed. This landscape continues to provide a visual narrative history of America’s automobile culture of the 20th century and its legacy of related commerce and architecture. Figure 17 1915 Automobile Club Strip Map showing realignments to north of A.T. & S.F Railroad tracks between Amboy and Danby (from Hatheway et al, HRER Dola and Lanzit Bridge Replacement) Chapter 3: Intrinsic Qualities May 2015 California Historic Route 66 CMP: Needles to Barstow Page 29 Route 66 had its beginnings officially in 1926, when the Bureau of Public Roads launched a numbered highway system in the United States. U.S. Highway 66 was pieced together, in part, from highways that had already been in use as parts of local, state, and national road networks. Extending from Chicago to Los Angeles, the new highway went through eight states. It was not completely paved until more than a decade after its designation. Many merchants in small and large towns through which the highway passed looked to the road for salvation by bringing much needed outside revenues into their often isolated communities. The highway was actively promoted in its early years, especially because it offered a more weather-friendly alternative to other east-west roadways. As the highway became busier with the nation’s traffic, the roadbed was markedly improved and the infrastructure of support businesses lining its right of Figure 18 Roadrunner Retreat near way expanded dramatically. New development stimulated a dynamic Chambless spiral in which better roads and accommodating businesses— especially providing fuel, lodging, and food—made travel more attractive. As more people traveled the road, the more the road stimulated public and private growth. While the Depression had detrimental effects for much of the nation, it also produced an ironic consequence along Route 66. The vast migration of destitute people fleeing from the privation of their former homes actually produced an increased volume of business along the highway. Commercial opportunities sprung up for a multitude of low-capital, mom and pop businesses. Buildings that were constructed for these businesses reflected the independence of the operations, a general absence of standardization, and a decentralized economic structure. At the same time, however, it became clear that life along Highway 66 presented opportunities not available to the nearby towns and businesses that lost traffic to the important highway and who suffered accordingly. At a very early point it was evident that a major nearby highway could both bring business and take it away; could bring success or spell failure. Figure 19 Route 66 Motel, Needles World War II generated a decline in civilian traffic, especially tourism. It stimulated local economies along the highway where military and defense production installations cropped up, a circumstance enhanced by their location to this important transportation corridor. The war also brought diminished highway maintenance and hard times for the businesses that had depended on the large volume of traffic passing by their front doors. These circumstances, in turn, meant that when the war ended, the surge in traffic was all the more dramatic. Traffic skyrocketed in the new era of prosperity in which people who had never taken a vacation May 2015 Chapter 3: Intrinsic Qualities Page 30 California Historic Route 66 CMP: Needles to Barstow in their lives now had the opportunity to travel west. They traveled not in pursuit of a job to ease their desperation, but for the sheer enjoyment of it. As the traffic increased, once again the small businesses along the highway also boomed. The iconic Route 66 associated with the migration of Okies in the 1930s transformed to an icon of freedom and kicks. The bleak image of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath faded and the upbeat sounds of Bobby Troup’s and Nat “King” Cole’s “get your kicks on Route 66” took over. Just as hard times in the nation actually produced a modest level of prosperity for many businesses along Route 66 in the Depression, the enormous traffic on the highway in the decade after World War II led to its decline. Crowding of the nation’s highways, with Route 66 as an exemplary case, meant not the improvement of the highway, but its replacement with the interstate highway system written into Figure 20 Bobby Troup’s Route 66 law in 1956. With the dominance of the interstate system, older U.S. Highways such as Route 66 lost their appeal for those only interested in getting to their destination as soon as possible. Many businesses along Route 66 were abandoned. Small communities dependent on the highway traveler often became ghost towns. Over the years Route 66 became a legend in American popular culture not only as a focus of great nostalgia and romance but also as a source of inspiration for television entertainment, movies, literature, and graphic art. As a metaphor and cultural icon it has Figure 21 Remnants of Ludlow’s Main Street “ghost town” few parallels in twentieth century representations
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