Got My Kicks on Route 66

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Oh, what a day. I’m one happy hillbilly. You might think there’s something wrong with me — and you’d be correct — for doing figurative backflips over something as simple as a walk on a bridge. Oh, what a bridge. If you’re of a certain age in America, you know about Route 66. If you’re not of a certain age anywhere in the world, you may have heard the song. It was known as “the Mother Road,” a US federal highway that went from Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier in California. The Eisenhower Interstate system put an end to Route 66 being “the Mother Road,” but it still holds a treasures place in the hearts of millions…including people like me who weren’t old enough to remember the TV show or the importance of the road itself. While many parts of the road are barely visible anymore, there are still parts of the road in use. They are marked clearly with the “historical Route 66” sign. I’ve seen them in Illinois, Missouri, and Oklahoma. One of the more interesting stories of the history of Route 66 was the Chain of Rocks Bridge, which crossed the Mississippi River from Madison, Illinois into St. Louis, Missouri. The bridge had a bend in it (about 30 degrees), necessitated because of the namesake shoal in the Mississippi River that made boating treacherous in the area. The ship captains and paddlewheel pilots objected to the location of the bridge on the Illinois side, so they put the bend in it. The bridge, as you can see in the photos, is quite narrow. That is what allowed cars to go across the Mississippi River on Route 66 from 1936 until it closed in 1970 (with the opening of the “New” Chain of Rocks Bridge on I-270). It, thankfully, isn’t just a memory. Today the bridge, in better shape at the age of 88 than some bridges are a half its age, is a pedestrian/bicycle path. You can walk across the mighty Mississippi on the Mother Road. And I did just that. COLLAGE: (Top left) The “old” Chain of Rocks Bridge, showing how narrow it is. (Top right) The entrance from the Madison, Illinois side of the river. (Bottom left) Downtown St. Louis, complete with the Arch, in the distance from the bridge. (Bottom right) The famous bend in the bridge. Imagine being in a car at that point!!!!