Category: Automobiles

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Stuck In The Mud – The Road to Better . . . Roads

Stick-in-the-mud. It’s a common turn of phrase. Its earliest known usage was in 1832. Its meaning refers to being old-fashioned and unwilling to change as in “don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud!” The stick in this case refers not to a literal stick but to the verb ‘to stick’ or, past tense, to be stuck. If you are stuck in the mud, you aren’t moving forward.

Although a figurative expression, in the early 1900s many country folk were literally stuck in the mud. Rural roads were often no more than dirt tracks scraped into the earth. Road construction and maintenance at the time was bush league. Farmers, trading labor for property tax, would hitch a team of horses to a large log and scrape it along the route. This “grading” would roughly level the path and clear it of debris. Later wet weather and traffic would then purée the road into a rutted impassable morass. 

Early simple dirt roads were susceptible to extensive erosion. Roads on slopes like this example were easily washed out by rain.

Early Modern Road Building

Beginning in the 1750s, engineers attempted bringing modern science into road building efforts. Early efforts echoed techniques used by the Romans on the famed Appian Way. Deep trenching, steep elevations, and layer upon layer of hard rock paving resulted. Yet, despite their impressive designs, all these early efforts met with limited success. The combined forces of water and road traffic led to rutting, potholes, and mud. Rural residents, often farmers, were stuck in the mud for weeks or months at a time.

Farmers’ plight was not all due to engineering failings. Farmers could be stubborn stick-in-the-muds. Resistant to change, they liked trading a little labor for the option to not pay property tax in cash. It took the wide scale adoption of trucks by farmers in the 1920s to change their minds about roads.

Enter Macadam

Nineteenth century Scottish engineer John McAdam made the first breakthrough developing a practical paved road. McAdam determined layers upon layers of rock and steep road crowns were unnecessary. All a road needed was a hard top crust protecting the soil underneath from weather and wear. McAdam built his roads as level as possible with the surrounding land. On McAdam’s thoroughfares, the road’s crown was only three inches higher than its edges. This slight crown allowed rain to run off the road into ditches on either side. McAdam defeated rain, the formidable enemy of roads, using a hard crust of small stones. The foundation of the crust consisted of stones smashed into five centimeter pieces. The top layer used stones no larger than two centimeters. Typical carriage wheels were ten centimeters wide. Paving the road with smaller stones prevented displacement of the surface stones. This ensured the surface remained intact protecting the road from weather and traffic.  

Gravel Roads to Paved Highways

These roads became known as macadamized roads and their surface as macadam. Building the protective crust from small stones eliminated expensive surface preparation. It also democratized road building. It allowed local communities throughout rural areas to build inexpensive macadam surfaced roads.

Later engineers built upon this road paving technique. Fast automobiles kicked up large amounts of dust on traditional macadamized roads. Engineers began spraying tar on macadamized roads to reduce dust. This technique became tar-bound macadam or tarmac. Growing use of automobiles fueled demand for smoother road surfaces. Before applying the final layer of stones, engineers mixed them with asphalt. Asphalt-bound macadam became known as blacktop. Construction of the first network of federal highways deployed much blacktop.

U.S. Highway 80
U.S. Highway 80 ran from Savannah, Georgia to San Diego California traversing 2,726 miles coast to coast. This section north of Florence, Arizona is a prime example of the blacktop paving technique.

Interstate Highways – A Blast from the Past

Macadamized road construction techniques prevailed through the end of World War Two. The passage of the Interstate Highway Act in 1956 forced changes. Road construction tilted away from the low-cost, democratic techniques McAdam pioneered. Interstates utilized complex engineering methods. Interstate highway specifications required excavating deep trenches, lining the roadbed with cast reinforced concrete, and building up the road surface with many layers of concrete. This construction technique allowed interstates to support heavier over the road trucks and military traffic including armored tank convoys. They also echoed McAdams predecessors’ mimicking of even earlier Roman techniques. As America took on a new post-war role as a neo-Rome attempting to enforce a Cold War Pax-Americana globally, it needed – or wanted – an imperial road system to match. 

A Neo-Appian Way

Abandoned Route 66 west of the Colorado River has withered into the desert. Without maintenance for over 50 years, it crumbled. Yearly rainfall run-off from the nearby mountains have washed it away. McAdam’s methods provided for a durable roadway that was easy to construct and maintain but made little permanent impact on the land. When no longer needed, the roadway could return to the earth. In Italy, portions of the Appian Way are still used. Often a layer of simple pavement covers the original Roman roadbed.

Standing on the remains of withered Route 66 looking east toward the Colorado, you can see I-40 and its massive bridge over the river. The deep road-bed channel cut into the earth lined with layers of concrete rival the river’s channel in depth and grandeur. As you stand in the desert taking in its sheer immensity, its contrast with the surrounding barren land is striking. One can imagine far-in-the-future travelers, echoing their medieval European predecessors, continuing to use I-40 ignorant of its origins.

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Google Doodle Propagates the Route 66 Myth

A Route 66 Gift Shop

On April 30, 2022, Google’s doodle sported a Route 66 theme. The doodle, an animated Route 66 road trip, is set to a jazz version of “Get Your Kicks on Route 66.” Google Art Director Matthew Cruickshank created it. He based it on his sketches made during a Route 66 road trip. The doodle proved popular, becoming the number one trending video on YouTube that day. The doodle also propagates the Route 66 myth.

“Get Your Kicks on Route 66” songwriter Bobby Troupe performed the jazz version used in the doodle. It’s likely many viewers were unfamiliar with Bobby Troupe’s 1964 performance of his popular song. Although written by Troupe, cover versions by Nat King Cole, Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, and others made the song and the road famous. Much of the iconic allure of Route 66 is due to media productions about Route 66. 

The Route 66 Myth

Yet, the iconic stature of Route 66 is based in myth. The whole idea of getting your kicks along a highway like Route 66 connects into folklore about road trips, nostalgia for supposed simpler times, and culture-war themes about Route 66 representing a better, more authentic version of America. The Route 66 myth is steeped in romantic visions about the freedom of the open road and its endless possibilities. It resonates with idealistic dreams of travel on Route 66 leading to personal transcendence in the wilds of the “real America.”

Google’s doodle leans heavily into the myth of Route 66. In discussing its doodle, Google describes the highway as the way to take “the ultimate road trip” mentioning awe-inspiring scenery, retro diners, and quirky motels. When asked what message he hoped people took from his Route 66 doodle, the creator, Matthew Cruickshank replied, “That life in the slow lane can be incredibly worthwhile.”

This vision of Route 66 as a slower, better way to travel that connects travelers to a more authentic America of yesterday is the core of the Route 66 myth. It is a myth since the reality of traveling Route 66 was one of congestion and danger with wildly divergent travel experiences dependent on race. 

Route 66 Reality

The decommissioning of the Route 66 in 1985 made traveling on abandoned sections slow and carefree. When it was a functional highway, it thronged with traffic. Utilized well beyond capacity with few engineered safety features, Route 66 garnered the dark nickname “bloody 66.” The high number of traffic fatalities along the road made travel anything but carefree.

While Google correctly notes that millions of Americans traveled the road postwar, missing from their description is any mention of the disparate experiences Black and White travelers experienced on the road. Doodle creator Matthew Cruickshank mentioned New Mexico as one of his favorite parts of Route 66 from his road trip. Yet, Black traveler guides from when Route 66 was operational show only a handful of businesses willing to service Black motorists. White travelers faced no such limitations. 

Route 66 Tourism Propagates the Route 66 Myth

Modern Route 66 tourism encourages the Route 66 myth. Tourism promoters often create “never was” Route 66 destinations for tourists. Many of the quirky roadside attractions that fuel the Route 66 myth, and productions like Google’s doodle, were actually created after Route 66’s demise. Google’s write-up on their doodle mentions Cadillac Ranch – a supposed Route 66 roadside attraction featuring several generations of Cadillac automobiles buried nose-end in in the ground in Amarillo, Texas. An art group called the Ant Farm created it in 1974. However, road maps from 1969 show Route 66 replaced by Interstate 40 for several miles east and west of Amarillo. Maps from 1975 show all of Route 66 in Texas replaced by I-40. With Route 66 completely replaced in Texas before the creation of Cadillac Ranch, it is actually an Interstate 40 roadside attraction.

Similarly, in many towns claiming Route 66 heritage, numerous gift shops, diners, and quirky motels date from after Route 66’s decommissioning. These faux Route 66 businesses offer up a “never was” version of life along Route 66 for tourist consumption. Many feature an idealized version of the 1950s as a better time in America despite the numerous issues that confronted America mid-century. Some authentic Route 66 businesses remain, but the reality for most small towns and businesses bypassed by interstates was bankruptcy. 

The Problem with Celebrating Route 66

Google’s Doodle, like Bobby Troupe’s song and the other media celebrating Route 66, is part of the Route 66 myth. A myth that holds up Route 66 as emblematic of a better, more authentic America without specifically defining what makes it better. Given the heavy “back to the fifties” tones infused in the Route 66 myth – a decade when America just began to address its long overdue issues with racial discrimination – Americans embracing the Route 66 myth should closely examine exactly what they are celebrating. 

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The Astonishing Significance of the Ordinary Concrete Bridge

If Americans think about bridges at all, it is typically in admiration of iconic bridges. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, and the Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan fit the bill. Admired for their beauty, iconic stature, or sheer size, these bridges are backdrops for vacation selfies, the subject of paintings, and settings for movie and television scenes. Largely ignored are the workhorse bridges – particularly ubiquitous concrete bridges. Yet, if not for the concrete bridge, the mass adoption of the automobile and the extensive network of American highways might not have been possible.

A modern concrete highway bridge

It is concrete bridges omnipresence that allows them to go unnoticed. Concrete bridges are literally everywhere today. From small city park paths to interstates, the concrete bridge is more common than a Starbucks. They traverse small depressions, deep ravines, other roads, and rivers. Elevated highways erase the line between road and bridge often for great distances. The section of U.S. Highway One between Miami and Key West consists almost entirely of concrete bridges – for 113 miles.

American Bridge History

Modern America’s cornucopia of concrete bridges was not always the case. Few bridges existed prior to the nineteenth century. Railroads and cities were early builders of bridges. Railroads spanned gulfs first with wooden and later steel trusses. Steel suspension bridges, first developed in the early nineteenth century and largely built by cities, slowly grew longer and taller through the century. The iconic Brooklyn Bridge, when it made its debut in 1883, was the largest steel suspension bridge in the world. 

Concrete bridges, common place now, had to wait until the twentieth century to dominate the landscape. The technology to build concrete bridges existed before the Civil War. Yet steel was the preferred material for most bridge construction prior to the twentieth century. Railroads could easily ship the steel components for bridges to construction sites; engineers preferred to design steel truss and suspension bridges; government officials and the public shared the belief that steel equaled strength.

Good Roads

Then people went plain nuts for bicycles. Beginning in the 1890s, cycling became the preferred commuting method and go-to sport for urban Americans coast-to-coast. Urban cyclists used their bicycles for improved mobility in the city, and to escape the city on the weekend. These weekend excursions brough millions of cyclists in contact with the dismal state of American roads outside the city.

Whereas most cities had paved roads actively maintained by a streets department, rural roads of the era were a Mad Max no-man’s-land. Leaving the city brought cyclists from paved, level city streets to glorified dirt cow-paths full of mud, ruts, and potholes. Many weekend excursions left cyclists covered in mud and hopping mad.

The response was the Good Roads Movement. This movement was a grass-roots movement of cyclist enthusiasts who began lobbying county and state governments for better roads. As the 1890s gave way to the twentieth century, automobile enthusiasts joined the cyclists as they faced similar problems with the poor condition of American roads. 

The Federal Government Gets Involved in Road and Bridge Building

The bicycle craze faded, but enthusiasm for automobiles did not. Intense lobbying by Good Roads groups now dominated by automobile owners, and later nationally organized under the American Automobile Association in 1902, led to federal action on roads. First with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1916 and later with the better funded Federal Aid Highway act of 1921, the federal government became heavily involved in road building.

These two pieces of legislation put federal funding behind road building, but also put federal standards for highway construction behind road building. Gone were the days of a county paying a farmer to drag a log behind his horse team to build a road. Instead, states had to form official highway departments, hire engineers, and submit their road plans to the federal government for approval to get funding. Since the public demand for roads was high, each state complied. 

Highway Construction Cost an Issue

The huge demand for roads put a subsequent demand on funding. The 1916 highway bill allocated a one-time sum pf $75 million across the U.S. for road building. It was quickly spent. The 1921 highway bill allocated $75 million a year for road building. State plans for highways exceeded even the larger amount of funds available in the 1921 highway bill.

This created the need to reduce costs – particularly in the west where distances between towns were longer and the terrain more formidable. In many western states, ravines, gullies, arroyos, washes, and canyons peppered the landscape. Building expensive steel bridges across all these obstacles made western highways more expensive.

A concrete bridge spans a small desert wash in Arizona
Small washes and ravines like this one are numerous in the American west increasing the number of bridges required to build roads.

Concrete Bridges to the Rescue

Enter the concrete bridge. Cheap and easy to build, concrete bridges could be quickly built over obstacles in the terrain large and small – often using the sand surrounding the bridge site. Roads too expensive to build with steel bridges were now feasible with concrete bridges. Many western highways of the era were planned only as gravel roads. Numerous steel truss or suspension bridges would make these too costly. With cheap concrete bridges, lonely low-volume western highways became possible.

A gravel highway in the desert southwest.
Highways in the American west were typically gravel up until the postwar period.
A concrete bridge on an abandoned section of old Route 80
Concrete bridges like this one on a now abandoned section of old U.S. Route 80 made highway construction affordable in western states.

And then a funny thing happened on the way to the rise of the automobile in the twentieth century. Other highway departments across the country discovered that concrete bridges made their projects cheaper too – making more road projects possible everywhere.

Counterintuitively, automobiles entered American life without roads to drive on. Had this situation continued, the mass adoption of automobiles might never have happened. Without a cost saving technology like the concrete bridge, fewer roads would likely exist limiting the utility of the automobile for individual mobility. Automobile enthusiasts might still outnumber general automobile users.

Today, general automobile users dwarf the number of automobile enthusiasts. Most Americans do not know how their automobile works – they just use it. Similarly, few consider the material used to build the road or bridge they drive on. However, the next time you use your car, take a moment to consider the concrete bridge. It played an astonishingly significant role in the rise of automobiles in American life and making travel by car possible almost everywhere. 

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The Other Southwestern Highway

As the song goes, “get hip to this timely tip, when you make that California trip. Get your kicks on Route 66!” First recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946, Bobby Troupe’s song exhorted travelers use Route 66 to get to LA-LA Land and multitudes did. Route 66 served as the main motorway west from its inception in 1926 until its obsolescence after the completion of Interstate 40. However, during the heyday of the old federal highways, there was another route west to California, Route 80.

U.S. Highway 80
U.S. Highway 80 ran from Savannah, Georgia to San Diego California traversing 2,726 miles coast to coast.

Route 80 began as an auto-trail route called the Dixie-Overland Highway. The Automobile Club of Savannah, Georgia conceived it as an all-weather coast-to-coast auto route in 1914. In 1926, the highway became part of the new federal highway system, losing its earlier name for its new moniker Route 80. Its number ending in zero indicated a coast-to-coast route as specified by the United States Numbered Highway System.

Its better known rival Route 66 was originally slated to be labelled Route 60 since western state highway officials thought a coast-to-coast route number would attract more traffic and benefit their states. Eastern state highway officials objected since the western highway did not run coast-to-coast, and they wanted the number 60 for a true east-to-west highway. The federal numbering system specified Route 66 should be numbered 62, but Oklahoma’s state highway commissioner Cyrus Avery stepped in lobbying for a catchier number. He liked the “ring” of 66, the other highway officials relented, and a national icon was born.

Since its near-brush with obscurity, Route 66 became as close as a highway could to a celebrity. Yet, its less flashier western counterpart Route 80 rivaled Route 66 for traffic volume. Almost as many Americans chose Route 80 to travel west as Route 66. Many motorists preferred Route 80 since its mostly flat, non-winter-weather route made it easier to drive. There were even a few years when Route 80’s traffic volume exceeded Route 66.

As a pre-interstate federal highway, Route 80, like all federal highways of the era, became main street when it arrived at a town. Travelers on Route 80 often frequented main street businesses, particularly the numerous gas stations and motor-court motels of the era.

Route 80 becomes Main Street in Florence Arizona
U.S. Route 80 became main street in each town it connected. Here, Route 80 runs through downtown Florence, Arizona.
Motor Court motels like the Blue Mist Motel in Florence Arizona were found all along federal highways like Route 80 in the pre-interstate era.

Route 66 obtained its celebrity status through numerous cultural productions including songs, movies, and television shows. Route 80 was never as showy as its glitzier cousin, but did have a brief, yet tragic, brush with fame.

Tom Mix was an American film actor and star of many early westerns. His portrayal of numerous cowboy characters in silent films greatly influenced the western film genre in the early days of American movies. Originally from Pennsylvania, Mix used his film-star wealth to purchase a ranch in Prescott, Arizona.

On October 12, 1940, after visiting the Pima County sheriff in Tucson, Mix headed north on Route 80 towards his home. 18 miles south of Florence, Arizona, Mix encountered construction barriers on the highway. Driving fast and unable to stop, Mix rolled his car while swerving. He died at the scene. A roadside memorial marks the location of the accident on old Route 80, now Arizona Highway 79. No longer a coast-to-coast highway, Route 80 was decommissioned in the western U.S. The portion from Savannah, Georgia to Dallas, Texas remains in use.

Monument commemorating 1930s cowboy film star Tom Mix.
A Route 80 roadside monument commemorating cowboy film star Tom Mix.
Plaque on Tom Mix monument
The plaque on the Tom Mix Memorial monument.