Historic US 66 East, US 99 South - Foothill Blvd, The Mother Road - Glendora to Rancho Cucamonga, CA

In the last video we re-joined modern Foothill Blvd at the Glendora/San Dimas city limit to continue our drive east towards San Bernardino. In this video, we go through San Dimas' downtown as well, briefly enter the small city of La Verne where we meet old CA 30/LRN 190 as Baseline Rd and begin as State Route 66 - the sole remaining surviver in the California highway system of US 66 - at the freeway that now carries the old highway's street name: CA 210/Foothill Freeway. We then quickly enter and leave the city of Pomona, where the state's maintenance now ends as we enter the city of Claremont on a tree lined boulevard.
Passing Claremont, we cross the San Bernardino County Line into the city of Upland. This portion remains very wide open and spacious with frontage roads as well, all dating to the very late US 66 days. There we pass by the Madonna of the Trail statue, located in the median of Euclid Ave/SR 83/LRN 192 overlooking Route 66. At this point, the original alignment went south to Arrow Hwy, which becomes San Bernardino Rd. Upland gives away to Rancho Cucamonga, adding a bit of flare with a new bridge symbolizing the importance of US 66 to the area just past where San Bernardino Rd ends at Foothill. Rancho Cucamonga is full of new development, most paying homage to it's routes as a 66 town.
US 66 is the road that needs no introduction. In 1926, as the first US Highways were being laid out across the country, a route was to be established running from Los Angeles, CA to Chicago, IL. This rather trivial route was given the number of Route 60 until proprietors in the southern part of the country raised issue with it's route numbering. Highways divisible by 5 were to be major routes, either border to border or ocean to ocean. This first incarnation of US 60 did not meet these qualifications and these people were able to successfully argue for the change in numbering. This led to the birth of US 66, which was chosen for the route as it was deemed 'catchy' and easy to remember.
US 66 would later go on to become the most traveled highway during the dust bowl, leading those in the midwest to travel the road seeking the promised prosperity in California, as in the Grapes of Wrath. It was that book that lent the name 'The Mother Road' to the highway, a term that has stuck to this day and become synonymous with the highway.
Towards the end of the Dust Bowl era and the Great Depression, California wanted to reinvent 66's image to being a 'Vacation Route', that is a route that leads to a vacation spot. Up until 1936, US 66 had entered Los Angeles on Broadway, arbitrarily ending at 7th St. When the change was approved by AASHTO, California moved US 66's western terminus from Los Angeles to Santa Monica. This replaced historic Signed State Route 2 from Olympic Blvd to Myra Ave, then used the remainder of Santa Monica Blvd to reach US 101 at Sunset Blvd. From there, US 66 turned left onto Figueroa, following it to Eagle Rock, ultimately heading across Colorado Blvd and re-joining it's original alignment at Fair Oaks Ave in historic Pasadena.
As newer superhighways were being built, Route 66 originally made use of them. The first limited access highway in the western United States - The Arroyo Seco Parkway - replaced most of Figueroa and led 66 straight into Pasadena. Plans were in place to build multiple of these superhighways - modern day freeways - in southern California. Some, like the original Santa Monica Freeway replacing Santa Monica Blvd and to be signed as part of US 66, never came to be. Those newfangled freeways turned out to be the death of the US highways however.
In 1956, the Interstate System was adopted by the federal government, leading to states becoming flush with cash to build new freeways. Three new Interstate Highways that were proposed in California threatened Route 66 itself: I-10, I-15, and I-40, all major, principal, routes. This, in addition to the Great Renumbering of 1964 in California, led to the removal of US 66.
In 1964, US 66 was truncated back to Pasadena having been replaced by SR 11 and SR 2. From then on, Route 66 only remained until it's replacements were completed. It's old routings were even officially numbered by the state as it's successors.
US 66 had been pushed back all the way to Needles by 1972. The only reason it was still in Needles was because I-40's bypass of the city had not been completed yet. In 1977, US 66 from Chicago to Scotland, MO - just outside Joplin - was removed after I-55 and I-44 had been completed. This was followed in 1979 with another western truncation from Needles, CA to Sanders, AZ at the Jct of US 666, before the ultimate deletion of US 66 in 1985.
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[@jvargas6034]

I Think Foothill Boulevard Is A Long Road Because Of How Historic It Looks

[@kennypalermo9071]

Can you do New Mexico roads?

[@ForgottenHwy]

I plan to visit New Mexico soon. Originally I was planning for sometime in late 2018, but plans fell through to visit Santa Fe. Then I had a different plan for 2019, and had car problems, so I decided to try again this year and, well, with everything going on I'm unsure that will happen. As is, I only take trips that I can leave and come back home from without even stopping to use the restroom lol.