Scholars Mind

Why Route 66 Still Haunts Us

The Federal Highway Administration of the United States calls it “the Mother Road”: others refer to it as the Main Street of America. Though no longer a major thoroughfare, Route 66 is still widely revered and remembered. Read about its history, or check out this video, then consider: what is the most famous road in your own country? Why do you think Route 66 still tugs at the imagination of travelers today?

Key concepts

Mythologization
The process by which a real thing turns into a symbol standing for an idea. Once it happens, people revere the meaning and stop noticing the object, which is why a cracked and closed highway can draw more visitors than a working one.

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Every work — at a glance

  • Route 66

    Some 3,940 km from Chicago to Santa Monica, established 1926 and decommissioned 1985 — the road that carried the Dust Bowl migration west and then died when the traffic moved to the freeway.

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What to know

  1. 01
    Route 66 endures because it stopped being a route. A 1939 novel, a 1946 song and a television series loaded it with meaning, so its fame now runs on story rather than function — the cracked asphalt matters far less than what people feel standing on it.

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Across subjects

The nickname was not the highway department's. John Steinbeck called it the mother road in The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, following Dust Bowl families west along

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

Nobody needs this highway to get anywhere, and it is more visited than roads that work. Argue whether preserving it is honest or nostalgic — and notice what the myth edits out: a Black family driving it in 1950 needed a printed Green Book to know which diners would serve them.

Practice — a sample

ARTRoute 66 kept its 1950s face only after the interstates took its traffic. That is MOST like —

  • A A burnt manuscript
  • B A repainted canvas
  • C A widened highway
  • D A restored engine
  • E A cut demo

Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.

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