MOVING A BIT OF OCEAN — NEW YORK TO LA VIA ROUTE 66
I was once given a book that detailed the 36 greatest road trips in the world. Naturally, it included Route 66, one of the world’s best-known roads, which at one stage was almost extinct — a road that has been on my bucket list since I was 15 years old.
For most Americans, Route 66 is an old road that nobody bothers to drive any more. Locals react with mild surprise when they hear you have come to drive it, as their preferred method of travel is to fly over it, which is why most of the people that travel this road are not Americans. The bulk of tourists come from Europe with another large contingent from Australia and New Zealand. Most of the Americans who do travel the route have some appreciation of the romance of the road but for them it’s nostalgia; it brings back memories of travelling Route 66 with their parents decades ago, before the Interstate was built.
Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985 when the last signature black-and-white shield markers were taken down. It had been the main route between West and East since the 1920s. Sixty years is not a long life when compared with the history of other well-known roads, and not just the Roman ones. However, it covers the US’s transmutation from the depression years of the 1930s — when the road carried farmers, driven off their land by drought, west to California — to becoming the most prosperous superpower in the world.
A LONG ROAD’S SHORT LIFE
Throughout World War II, Route 66 carried troops
