Forgotten Hwy's video: Historic US 66 East 91 395 North - Cajon Blvd The Mother Road - San Bernardino to Cajon Pass CA

Here it is. Part 7: Cajon Blvd. We reach Mt Vernon on 5th St to turn north towards the Cajon Pass. My Vernon is mostly lined with old businesses with neighborhoods behind them which give way to another fork. This time, we bear high to continue onto Cajon Blvd, paralleling the railroad tracks into the Devore area of San Bernardino before beginning the ascent into the Cajon Pass. Because of the road paralleling the tracks there are very few major streets that intersect Cajon Blvd however we do pass under bridges for Highland Ave (former SR 30/LRN 190), SR 210 and the I-215/SR 210 ramps. East of the railroad tracks are mostly industrial business parks while the west is mostly neighborhoods and subdivisions. Just before Devore Rd we meet Kendall Rd at a Y junction. Kendall merges onto northbound Cajon Blvd and was formally SR 206, and originally LRN 191 and was signed as a City or Business Routing of US 66. Past Devore Rd, we begin entering the pass. At first, this is on a reconstructed frontage road completed as part of the San Bernardino Interchange Project. Past that we merge back onto the historic alignment of US 66, 91 and 395 into the Pass. This alignment eventually ends at Cleghorn Road just prior to the Cajon Junction. This is only major traversable portion of Route 66 left in the Cajon Pass. Most is now buried or disconnected by I-15. 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. 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 (i.e: US 66 through Amboy was signed as US 66 but was Route 40 according to Caltrans). The only exception was for the portion from SR 30 in La Verne to I-15 (modern I-215) in San Bernardino. This remained Route 66, and is still legally part of SR 66 to this day. US 66 had been pushed back all the way to Needles in 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. Thanks for watching! Follow and Support Me: Website: forgottenhwy.com Twitter: http://bit.ly/hwytweet Instagram: http://bit.ly/hwyinsta Facebook: http://bit.ly/hwyfacebook Patreon: http://bit.ly/hwypatreon