While poking around the Vimeo account of Pounds Media, I found this video about the history of the National Road in Illinois, which dates back more than two centuries.
https://vimeo.com/32343992
It’s a terrific video, and you’ll find a number of parallels to Route 66. Also, an alignment of Route 66 overlaps the National Road in Collinsville, Fairmont City, and East St. Louis.
Fascinating. I was not aware of this bit of history. Thanks for posting it, Ron.
Much like today…everyone wants better roads, but nobody wants to pay for them!
That is a good film. It’s shown at the National Road Interpretive Center in Vandalia, IL. The film actually has more of a connection to Route 66 than you might realize. At about the 7:40 mark, on screen text gives the length of the National Old Trails Road as 2448 miles. That number should be familiar to most Route66News.com visitors since it’s the accepted length of the initial US 66 routing. Its use for the NOTR is not a coincidence. It’s an error. The film maker may have picked it up from Wikipedia as the NOTR article there had the 2448 number for awhile. I noticed the error when I saw the film in Vandalia but thought I’d be nice and not mention it. Now I feel guilty about that.