What is Route 66?

0:00 Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we hit the road today, we have some huge shout-outs. First, to Oliver, who is seven and lives right beside today's topic in New Mexico and asked all about it for its 100th birthday this year. This one is for you, Oliver.

0:22 And a huge hello to brothers Eli, who is eight, and Asher, who is six, listening every night all the way from Auckland, New Zealand.

0:31 Plus, a big hello to nine-year-old Evan, who listens every single day in the car with his dad. Thanks for hanging out with us, guys!

0:40 If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

0:45 Alright, Finn, picture this. A road that stretches for an unbelievable 2,448 miles, crossing eight entire states, and serving as a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people.

1:01 Whoa, 2,400 miles? That is as long as driving across the entire United States. What road is it?

1:10 We are travelling down Route 66. A hundred years ago, in 1926, America was just a patchwork of bumpy dirt tracks until this brand new highway stitched the country together. It stitched the whole country together? How did they even do that? It was a massive project. From quirky diners and vintage neon motels to families chasing a better life out west.

1:37 Let's discover why this single road became an absolute American legend.

1:42 So wait, the year is 1926. What was it like before Route 66? Were there just normal roads everywhere?

1:50 Not at all. Cars were still pretty new. Most roads in America were just old Native American trails or dirt wagon tracks. Imagine trying to drive across the country and getting your car stuck in three feet of thick, gooey mud. That sounds terrible. You'd have to get out and push it. Exactly! There was no easy way to get from the Midwest to the West Coast.

2:16 That is, until a businessman from Tulsa, Oklahoma, named Cyrus Avery stepped in. People call him the father of Route 66. What did Cyrus Avery do? He realised the country desperately needed a connected highway system for trade and travel. So he pushed the government to create a master road. On November 11, 1926, Route 66 was officially born.

2:45 Awesome! So they just laid down a giant strip of concrete all at once.

2:51 Not exactly. When it opened, only about 800 miles of it were actually paved. The rest was just graded dirt, loose gravel, bricks, and even wooden planks. It took 12 whole years, until 1938, for the entire road to be completely paved. Where did it actually go? Like, what were the start and end points?

3:15 It started in the big windy city of Chicago, Illinois, and wound its way southwest through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and finally ended at the sunny beaches of Santa Monica, California.

3:33 Wow, eight entire states! Oliver in New Mexico must see people driving it all the time.

3:40 He sure does. By crossing the country diagonally, Route 66 connected hundreds of tiny rural towns to massive cities. It offered an epic continuous road trip across America, creating a vital link for farmers to transport their grain and produce.

3:59 Okay, so the road is built. What happened next? Did everyone just go on fun vacations to the beach? Not at first.

4:06 In the 1930s, America hit a really dark time called the Great Depression, and something terrible happened in the middle of the country called the Dust Bowl.

4:17 The Dust Bowl? Was it a giant bowl made out of dirt?

4:21 Kind of. A massive drought dried up the farmland in places like Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. The fierce winds picked up the dry topsoil and created terrifying black blizzards. These were dust clouds so thick and massive they actually blocked out the sun at noon.

4:41 That is so scary. You couldn't even see the sky. What did the people do?

4:46 They had to leave to survive. Their crops were buried alive in dirt. Between 1935 and 1940, around 210,000 people packed everything they owned and headed west to California to find work.

5:02 Over 200,000 people? That's like an entire city moving all at once.

5:07 Exactly, and their main escape route was Route 66. Families tied mattresses to the roofs of their cars, strapped water barrels to the side, and crammed pots, pans, and even farm animals into the back.

5:21 Did they make it all the way to California?

5:24 It was incredibly hard. Old cars broke down constantly, tyres popped on the boiling hot desert pavement, and many families ran out of money. They drove thousands of miles, sometimes going less than 30 miles an hour. That must have been exhausting. It was, but the road gave them hope. A famous writer named John Steinbeck wrote a book about it in 1939 called The Grapes of Roth.

5:51 He gave Route 66 a nickname that stuck forever, the Mother Road.

5:56 The Mother Road, because it guided them safely to their new home and took care of them.

6:01 Yes. For hundreds of thousands of people, that highway was a lifeline, carrying them towards sunshine and a second chance.

6:09 So after the Dust Bowl, did things get better for the Mother Road?

6:13 Oh, they got way better. After World War II ended, the 1950s brought the golden age of Route 66. Families suddenly had money for vacations, and driving across the country became a huge, fun adventure.

6:29 Did they sleep in their cars? 2,400 miles is a super long way to drive.

6:35 Nope, this is when the classic Route 66 motels were born. Mom and pop businesses popped up everywhere to give travellers a place to rest. Like the famous Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumkari, New Mexico, which opened in 1939.

6:52 What was special about the Blue Swallow?

6:55 It had a massive glowing neon sign, shaped like a blue bird, and tiny individual garages attached to your room where you could park your car safely for the night.

7:06 That sounds so cozy. I bet they had awesome road trip food too.

7:11 They really did. You could pull over at the cozy dog drive-in in Springfield, Illinois. In 1946, they actually claimed to have invented the corndog on a stick, right there on Route 66. They used special custom tongs and racks to deep-fry the hot dogs perfectly.

7:31 A corndog on a stick? Okay, this is officially the best road ever.

7:36 And the roadside attractions were wild. Business owners built crazy things to get tourists to pull over. Imagine driving through the flat fields of Illinois and suddenly seeing the Gemini Giant. Wait, what is a Gemini Giant? It's a 30-foot-tall fibreglass spaceman wearing a helmet and holding a giant silver rocket ship in his hands.

8:00 30 feet tall? That's as tall as three elephants stacked on top of each other. Why would they build that?

8:07 Just to make people smile and stop for a picture. There was also the world's second largest rocking chair in Missouri, and the blue whale of Catusa in Oklahoma, which was an 80-foot-long concrete whale you could actually slide off into a pond.

8:24 Haha, no way. They built giant whales and spacemen just so people would stop and buy snacks.

8:30 Yes, Route 66 wasn't just a road to get from point A to point B. The road itself was the vacation. It was totally unpredictable, with a brand new, hilarious adventure around every single curve.

8:46 If it was so amazing and full of giant spacemen, why don't people use it to cross the country today?

8:53 Well, Route 66 became a victim of its own success. It was so popular that it got too crowded. So, starting in 1956, the government began building the Interstate Highway System. Interstate highways?

9:10 Are those the big roads we drive on now?

9:13 Exactly. These were massive, straight, multi-lane roads where you could drive super fast, up to 70 miles an hour, without ever stopping for a traffic light or driving through a small town.

9:27 Oh, so they completely bypassed all the little towns and the neon motels?

9:32 Sadly, yes. It took about 30 years, but those five new interstate highways slowly replaced the old road. Finally, on June 27, 1985, the official highway signs were taken down. Route 66 was decommissioned.

9:52 That makes me a little sad. Are the giant statues and old diners all gone?

9:57 Not at all! Thanks to local communities fighting to save their towns, large parts of it were preserved as historic Route 66. Today, thousands of tourists from all over the world still drive it just to experience the history. And 2026 marks its official 100th birthday.

10:19 Happy 100th birthday, Route 66! Okay, do you have any weird facts before the quiz?

10:25 I do! Did you know you can literally sleep inside a concrete tent? At the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona, the hotel rooms are shaped like 30-foot-tall teepees.

10:38 Wait, really? I want to sleep in a giant concrete teepee.

10:42 Heh, and here is the craziest one. In New Mexico, there is a musical stretch of Route 66. If you drive exactly 45 miles per hour over a special section, the rumble strips on the road vibrate your tyres to play the song America the Beautiful.

11:02 The road literally sings to you. That is the coolest thing I've ever heard in my entire life.

11:08 Alright Finn, it is time for the quiz. Are you ready?

11:12 Okay, I'm ready. Let's do this. First question.

11:16 What year was Route 66 officially established? Next one. What two cities did Route 66 connect at its very beginning and end? Question 3. What famous nickname did author John Steinbeck give to Route 66? 6. Here's number 4. Who was the Tulsa businessman known as the father of Route 66? Last question. How many US states did the original Route 66 cross?

12:02 Great job, let's see how you did. The first answer is it was established in 1926. Happy 100th birthday. For question 2, it connected Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California. Number 3. The answer is it was called the Mother Road. Question 4. That was Cyrus Avery. And the final answer is, it crossed eight entire states.

12:32 Wow, I can't believe how much history is paved into one single road!

12:37 I know! From families escaping the Dust Bowl to giant 30-foot spacemen. Route 66 really is the main street of America.

12:46 Hey! If you had fun cruising down the mother road with us today, could you leave us a five-star review?

12:53 Yes, just scroll down on your app and tap the five stars. Let us know what your favourite roadside attraction would be.

13:00 And follow this show wherever you're listening and check out our sister shows. Science and philosophy is not boring, and maths is not boring. Go give those a listen and a follow as well.

13:11 And if you want to shout out on the show, or just want to say hi like Oliver did, email us at hello at kidopoly.com. Thanks for listening, everyone. See you next time on History is not boring. Bye. Bye.