BUSINESS/ The Executive buys the shares of the Legislative and Judiciary, creating the largest rift in the country

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

The road that became an American myth

2026-11-13 20:39:42Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA ENVER ROBELLI

The road that became an American myth

100 years ago, on November 11, 1926, Route 66 was officially added to the American national highway system. It would become much more than a link between Chicago and California: an escape route from poverty, a promise of a new life, and, later, a symbol of freedom on four wheels.

About 4,000 kilometers long, stretching across eight American states – Route 66 connected Chicago to the Pacific coast, in the Los Angeles area. It passed through small towns, villages, fields and deserts, connecting the interior of the country with the dreamed West. The road brought travelers, increased trade, awakened dreams and opened up opportunities. After all, isn’t America a land of unlimited possibilities? Anyone who stopped by the road to drink or eat something became a witness to an America on the move.

The birth of Route 66 coincided with the rapid expansion of automobile use. Between the 1920s and 1930s, the number of registered vehicles in the United States nearly tripled: from eight million to 23 million. The country needed a road network that would make long-distance travel easier.

But in the 1930s, Route 66 was not yet the road of vacation and adventure. For many families, it was the road of survival. Droughts and dust storms, known as the Dust Bowl disaster, devastated agriculture in large parts of the country. Families left without land and income loaded their belongings into damaged cars and headed for California, hoping to find work and start a new life there.

Writer John Steinbeck immortalized this exodus in his novel “The Road to Wrath,” published in 1939. He called Route 66 “the mother of all roads” and “the road of a fleeing people.” However, California did not welcome everyone with open arms. For many newcomers, the dream ended in hard labor and exploitation on farms and plantations.

During World War II, Route 66 also served as a transportation route for military equipment. After the war, its role changed again. The economy grew, employment expanded, and many Americans had enough money for the first time to travel for pleasure.

Families drove their big cars out West, visiting the Grand Canyon or the meteor crater in Arizona. The road that had once been paved with despair now promised vacation, adventure, and freedom.

This spirit was captured by musician Bobby Troup in the song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.” In February 1946, shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, he had the opportunity to introduce the song to Nat King Cole. The famous singer and pianist recorded it and turned it into a hit. Other interpretations followed, from Bing Crosby to the Rolling Stones.

Along the way, a whole new world emerged: motels in the form of traditional indigenous tents, gas stations with distinctive architecture, small restaurants, open-air cinemas, and souvenir shops. All of this infrastructure had one purpose: to entice travelers to stop and spend. Large billboards and neon lights became as much a part of the landscape as the asphalt itself.

Another peculiarity: this route marked the beginning of the American fast food industry. The first McDonald's restaurant opened in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. Hamburgers, French fries, and milkshakes and ice cream became part of the travel experience.

However, the freedom that Route 66 promised was not equal for everyone. Discrimination and racial segregation limited the opportunities of many Americans to travel, eat, or sleep in the same places as others. Behind the romantic image of the road lay a more complicated reality.

With the construction of new interstate highways, Route 66 gradually lost its importance. Traffic bypassed towns, and many roadside businesses were left without customers. In 1985, it was officially removed from the US national highway system.

But the administrative end was not the end of its history. On the contrary, the road increasingly became a myth.

Today, people from all over the world travel along the remaining segments, searching for old motels, historical signs, and traces of an America that was once part of the United States. Although the route has changed over the years and there has never been a single, unchanging version of the “authentic” Route 66, its symbolic power remains.

It is both a reminder of American hardship and an expression of a universal dream: to set out, to leave something behind, and to believe that another life awaits beyond the horizon.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×