By Mark Landis
San Bernardino Sun
Affectionately known as “America’s Mother Road,” Route 66 was created in 1926 by patching together a 2,448-mile network of existing streets and dirt roads. The historic highway cut a rambling path through the heart of the U.S., running from Chicago, Illinois, to California’s Pacific Coast.
The ink on the newly drawn route maps had barely dried before the road began a continuous process of paving, widening, straightening, and realignment. But even as Route 66 evolved and improved, new highways were already being planned that would eventually bypass and replace the old road.
The section of Route 66 that ran through San Bernardino County was originally part of National Old Trails Road which was designated in 1912. By May of 1914, road signs had been placed on most of the route through Southern California, and the flow of traffic over the rugged highway began to increase dramatically.
In Southern California, Route 66 became a lifeline of transportation and revenue that stretched from the remote desert town of Needles on the Colorado River, to the seaside community of Santa Monica.
More than 240 miles of the highway passed through San Bernardino County, and most of those miles traversed inhospitable sections of desert. Tiny oases sprouted up along the highway, providing gas stations, auto camps, cafés, and motels. These remote enterprises survived entirely on the business generated from the highway, and the traveling public was equally dependent on the services they provided.
In the larger, more established cities like Victorville, Barstow, and Needles, the highway passed through the heart of town, and the central business districts grew up along the route. City officials and business owners were quick to oppose any changes to the route that could negatively affect their economy.
Few of the people who depended on Route 66 for their livelihoods would have noticed a subtle turning point for the highway that occurred in 1935. On May 8, the San Bernardino Sun reported that $1 million of state highway funding had been allocated for construction of a new freeway from Pasadena to Los Angeles.
The Arroyo Seco Freeway (later renamed the Pasadena Freeway) was opened to the public in November 1940, making it the first freeway in the western United States. This six-mile stretch of intersection-free roadway signaled the beginning of California’s massive freeway building program that would continue for decades.
The first direct threat to travel and commerce on Route 66 became a reality in 1944, when the California State Highway Commission began buying up the right-of-way for a great “highway of tomorrow” from the Inland Valleys, to Los Angeles. Huge new post-war highway projects were planned all over the state, and war-weary Californians were ready to move into the future with modern freeways.
By 1945, construction of a 10-mile section of the new Ramona Freeway from Colton to Etiwanda Avenue in Ontario was underway. This section of the freeway would basically run parallel to Valley Boulevard, which was the closest major east-west thoroughfare.
On March 14, 1947, California Gov. Earl Warren cut the ribbon on the new section of superhighway, predicting that “one day, super freeways will reach from one end of the state to the other.”
The merchants and cities along Route 66 must have caught a glimpse of their future when the Valley Boulevard businessmen confronted Gov. Warren, protesting the deep impact the freeway would have on their livelihoods. They said the lack of adequate signs, and access had already greatly reduced their business.
Mile by mile, the Ramona Freeway bridged the gap between San Bernardino and Los Angles. Oddly, the entire right-of-way had not been purchased, nor had the exact route of the freeway been finalized before construction began.
The name of the Ramona Freeway was officially changed to the San Bernardino Freeway in 1954.
The new San Bernardino Freeway ran generally parallel to Route 66, just a few miles south of the old road. By 1957, the entire freeway could be traveled from Los Angeles to San Bernardino. This allowed motorists to completely bypass more than 50 miles of Route 66 between the two cities.
A new section of freeway running north and south through the heart of San Bernardino was opened in 1960. This section became the present-day 215 Freeway. It bypassed the portion of Route 66 that passed through town on Mt. Vernon Avenue, and many of the downtown merchants were wiped out by the loss of business.
Up in the High Desert, Route 66 was slowly being paved over or bypassed by the new Barstow Freeway. This section of freeway would eventually stretch from the summit of the Cajon Pass, all the way to Barstow. In 1956, the Barstow Freeway bypassed the section of Route 66 that ran through downtown Victorville. This marked the first major desert city’s downtown district to be bypassed by a freeway.
In 1958, the new section of freeway between Victorville and Barstow was opened, and the tiny desert communities of Oro Grande, Helendale, and Hodge were bypassed.
Fortunately, these communities were able to survive on other sources of revenue like cement manufacturing, farming, and nearby George Air Force Base.
By 1971, the scenic section of Route 66 through the Cajon Pass was completely replaced by the new Interstate 15 freeway.
The last original section of Route 66 through the desert between Barstow and Needles was bypassed in 1973, when the construction of Interstate 40 was completed. Interstate 40 bypassed, or paved over, 165 miles of Route 66 through San Bernardino County. The town of Daggett and the rest stop communities of Newberry Springs, Bagdad, Amboy, and Essex, were left stranded in the desert by progress.
Within a few short decades after its conception, Route 66 was unceremoniously dismantled, and rendered obsolete by an expanding network of modern super-highways.
Thankfully, many sections of the old road were preserved, and are still in use today as city thoroughfares, and pieces of rural highways. Beginning in the 1990s, Route 66 saw a resurgence of tourist traffic. Drivers came from all over the world, seeking out the remaining sections of the old highway to relive the nostalgic glory days of the Mother Road.
It seems that even America’s beloved Route 66 was really only a stepping stone in the rush of unstoppable progress to build a great federal interstate highway system.
