Many people took to the road for personal travel or to find work. The open highway came to represent independence and freedom. During the nineteen-twenties and thirties, the most traveled road in the United States was Route Sixty-Six. It stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California. It was considered the "people's highway."
VOICE ONE:
The writer John Steinbeck called Route Sixty-Six the "Mother Road" in his book "The Grapes of Wrath." Hundreds of thousands of people traveled this Mother Road during the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties. They came from the middle of the country. They moved West in search of work and a better life.
In nineteen-forty-six, Nat King Cole came out with this song, called "Route Sixty-Six."
(MUSIC: "Route 66")
VOICE TWO:
World War Two ended in nineteen-forty-five. Soldiers came home and started families. Businesses started to move out to the edges of cities where suburbs were developing. Most families in these growing communities had cars, bicycles or motorcycles to get around. Buses also became popular.
The movement of businesses and people away from city centers led to the economic weakening of many downtown areas. City leaders reacted with transportation projects designed to support downtown development.
Riders wait for a train at the Metro Center station in Washington, D.C.Underground train systems also became popular in the nineteen-fifties. Some people had enough money to ride on the newest form of transportation: the airplane.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25