Deep within the Great American Songbook is the song “Get Your Kicks ( On Route 66 ) . ” It is an wellbeing vocal. with a blues or wind feel. played since its creative activity in 1946. First performed by Bobby Troup. it was rerecorded about instantly by Nat King Cole. In her enlightening site Route 66: The Main Stream of America. Tiffany Camey states “this song’s catchy wordss. and speedy round reflected the spirit of the Baby Booming epoch after World War II. ” The route stretches from Chicago. Illinois to Los Angeles. California: 2. 451 stat mis entire. The historic route was decommissioned in 1985 after old ages of diminution at the custodies of the Interstate Highway System ( IHS ) . This United States Route nevertheless. is non the lone sick person of the IHS. The out-of-the-way towns that the Routes were built to service hold besides fallen into disrepair. unless they have grown to embrace a nearby Interstate. The Interstate Highway System has therefore caused rural America to worsen in favour of dumbly populated cities. killing reliable innovator spirit these countrified towns embodied. These metropoliss and townships located along U. S. Routes such as 12. 24. and 40 have about disappeared. despite some being founded over 150 old ages ago.
If these towns are lost. the history of innovators traveling through the new West. trying to chasten the land. crafting colonies through rugged landscapes with an unforgiving clime would be lost with them. The history of the land would be strip-mined. The aforesaid historic Routes were provisioned under President Wilson’s Federal Road Act of 1916. Early on as this seems. Henry Ford’s Model T had been available since 1909. In seven old ages of driving on a national degree. Ford’s Model T. designed specifically for “washboard” and soil roads. had left what roads had existed in serious disrepair particularly after heavy rainfall ( Frontenac. Weingroff ) . So. the federal authorities saw fit to put aside money to construct proper roadways. By 1920. three million stat mis of roadway stretched across the state. but merely 360. 000 were suited for cars ( Camey ) . Therefore. in 1921. the U. S. passed the Federal Highway Act. with Cyrus Avery elected president of the Associated Highways Association of America.
Avery would travel on to be known as the “Father of Route 66. ” His presidential term over the AHAA was compounded with going Oklahoma’s province main road commissioner. every bit good as the commissioner of every other big main road commission or association. By 1925. Avery route choice for the national main road web had begun with a simple mission: “to make going easier. ” Making travel easier would be a countrywide issue until the Great Depression. when about no 1 could afford to go. But in the 1920s. main road commissioners used a simple system for calling bing and future roads. which can still be used today to place way and importance: Roadss with even Numberss run East-West. uneven Numberss go North-South. shield marks indicate interstates. chief main roads are numbered under 100. and most outstanding roads end with a zero – any figure of these characteristics can be seen on an I-70 mark. Currently. a coloured shield indicates an Interstate Highway. while a black and white shield points to interstate paths. On November 11. 1926. functionaries met in North Carolina to subscribe off on the paths in all 48 bing provinces.
By this clip 800 of Route 66’s about 2400 stat mis had already been paved. but would non be wholly finished until 1937 ( Camey ) . This made no difference to Americans desiring to travel westward. Route 66 may merely hold had its foundation laid in some parts. but the monetary value of Ford’s Model T dropped to $ 290 ( Vaughan ) . which is around $ 3. 800 harmonizing to the US Inflation Calculator. One twelvemonth after Route 66 had finished paving. President Roosevelt passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1938. resulted in the creative activity of Toll Roads and Free Roads ( Weingroff ) . While non contending in Europe and the Pacific. Roosevelt was still perpetuating New Deal economic sciences. peculiarly on roadways. Another Federal-Aid Highway act was passed in 1944 to maintain criterions set in the 1938 Act. and to present a 65. 000-km “National System of Interstate Highways” without supplying support or any kind of federal committedness. One twelvemonth subsequently. World War II had ended. get downing the babe boomer coevals.
Most congratulations for this was documented along the dumbly populated seasides of the Pacific and Atlantic ; yet. many soldiers were happy to travel back to the rural towns where they left from. hopefully to do them better by opening a store or eating house if a occupation wasn’t available through assorted mills or Millss. In the old ages between World War II and The Korean War. little towns were under changeless building. about in a 2nd moving ridge of boomtowns. The most efficient manner to construct these towns was along preexistent U. S. Routes constructed through the Great Depression and World War II. Travel was simplified by higher velocity bounds and changeless matinence compared to non U. S Routes. This tendency continued for eight old ages until 1954. when President Eisenhower passed a new Federal-Aid Highway Act ( Weingroff ) in order to quickly mobilise military personnels and support the full United States in the event of catastrophe or onslaught by Communist powers ( Interstate Highway System ) – explicating why Hawaii and Alaska have Interstates today. Eisenhower was able to give much of his attending to the interstate main roads after an Armistice between North and South Korea in 1953.
He thought that the Highway Act of 1954 would non be plenty for his expansive program. He formed the Clay Committee. which would look into legion options refering the funding of his national interstate main road web. Though Clay Committee measures failed in Congress. Congress passed the Federal Highway Act of 1956. supplying for “a 66. 000-km national system of interstate and defence main roads to be built over 13 old ages ( Weingroff ) . ” Eisenhower was determined to hold over 41. 000 stat mis of main roads. at a two lane lower limit in either way paved by the terminal of 1969 ( Siasoco ) . Less than three months subsequently. the Highway Financing Act of 1956 passed in Congress. about nem con in both houses. assisting to fund about all of Eisenhower’s National Highway Defense System. This measure passed on July 29th of 1956. On August 13th. the first officially recognized contract for an Interstate Highway was for Route 66 in Missouri ( Interstate Highway System ) . Initially. this had small consequence on bing U. S. Routes since they were simply renamed or given new interchanges to suit the streamlining thought.
Lone foundations for new main roads were being laid. doing the little towns in America every bit feasible as any large metropolis. In the 1950s and 1960s. my hometown of Buckner. Missouri was traveling and agitating on a Friday dark. Traveling down Main Street provided all the merriment you could look for. what with state folks from Sibley and Levasy coming into town to see the Red Dog Bar or stop by the Drug Store for a malted. However. as clip progressed. more and more main road was being laid. syphoning traffic and attending from older Paths. President Eisenhower was avid in his ends. and the Interstate Highway System would non be wholly completed until October 14 of 1992. The cost was besides a spot more than the 25 billion originally thought. Entire cost was figured at 114 billion dollars. But after it was declared complete. the Interstate Highway System was named as a portion of the National Highway System by The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995. President Clinton chose to utilize a great trade of bing two lane main roads to supplement the Interstates ( it was declared in 1995 that 98 % of the NHS already existed ) ( Slater ) . In the old ages of building and since its “completion. ” many Americans have come to enjoy the Interstates. During the 1970s and 80s. people could drive to work at 55 miles per hour alternatively of an oppressive bound of no more than 40 or 45 miles per hour on U. S. routes in dumbly populated countries.
After 1987. the bounds in many countries was increased to 65 or 70 miles per hour following the abrogation of a federal jurisprudence ( Interstate Highway System ) . allowing people come to work in the metropolis from the suburbs with less than an hour’s commute in either way normally. It is reported that approximately 90 % of Americans live within five stat mis of an Interstate Highway ( Slater ) . This did non so. and does non now bode good for rural U. S. Routes. Paths are barely of all time considered for new developments or locations of major concatenation shops any longer. Looking at the Kansas City. Missouri Metropolitan Area and all it entails. we hold more than our just portion of concatenation shops. National names like Wal-Mart. AMC Theatres. Price Chopper. Aldi. K-Mart. and Target are some companies with shops in Kansas City. But happening any of these requires Interstate 70 as a frame of mention. Wal-Mart has four locations between stat mi markers 10 and 28. Mile grade 10 houses one of the largest Wal-Mart Supercenters in the state. mile marker 15A puts you on main road 291. and so the Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club is five proceedingss off in hideous traffic. The Blue Springs and Oak Grove Wal-Mart Supercenters are at markers 21 and 28. severally.
The metropoliss cropping up all around interstates are far more likely to acquire an economic encouragement in the signifier of a Wal-Mart or McDonalds than any town more than five stat mis off from an interstate. I’ve seen this firsthand. Buckner. Missouri. a mere eight stat mis north of Interstate 70 in Grain Valley. is now a town you blink through on your manner place from work – utilizing the local High School as a frame of mention. And you truly merely track Route 24 through Buckner if you live farther east down Route 24. or you live in Grain Valley. Otherwise. Route 24 West takes you into Independence to set you onto 291 North into Liberty. Missouri. And if you need to acquire to I-70. Highway 7 moves south and inserts drivers straight onto the interstate. If things continue in the manner they have over the past 50 old ages. Buckner may be decommissioned. merely as Route 66 was in 1985. On New Years of 1985. my male parent moved into the house I grew up in. Since that clip. much about the interior of our house has changed. due to reconstructing. but small has exterior of our house.
The neighbours I remember from childhood are largely still populating in the same houses. all with the same floor program as our house. The food market shop and eating house on the border of town have changed custodies many times. but ever functioning the same intent for the same people. New developments finished building instantly before the lodging bubble explosion. so the town has new places with no 1 to populate in. All in all. the town has non changed much. But that is portion of where its value comes from. Buckner remains an antique town. preserved in gold. for future coevalss to see. Buckner is still the largest town and is turning the quickest within its bunch of Levasy. Wellington. and Napoleon. All of which are located on Route 24. Meanwhile. eight stat mis down the route. Grain Valley. Missouri is detonating. by busying land straight next to Interstate 70 and 40 Highway. The City of Grain Valley was incorporated 70 old ages after the Township of Buckner. and presently has a population more than four times that of Buckner at merely fewer than 13. 000. turning at a rate of 149 % compared to Buckner’s 12. 9 % ( City of Grain Valley ) . Merely eight miles’ difference.
Bibliography
Camey. Tiffiney. Path 66: The Main Stream of America. Path 66: The Main Stream of America. Tiffiney Camey. 11 May 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //xroads. Virginia. edu/~ug02/carney/music. hypertext markup language & gt ; . “General Information. ” Welcome to the City of Grain Valley Missouri. City of Grain Valley. n. d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www. cityofgrainvalley. org/generalinformation. aspx & gt ; . Siasoco. Ricco V. “Red White And Blue Highways – The Story of the U. S. Interstate. ” Infoplease. Pearson Education. 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www. infoplease. com/spot/interstate1. hypertext markup language & gt ; . Slater. Rodney E. “The National Highway System: A Committedness to America’s Future. ” Public Roads. United States Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration. 8 Apr. 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2012. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www. fhwa. point. gov/publications/publicroads/96spring/p96sp2. cfm & gt ; .
