… or is it? - Today´s Route 66 is a puzzle of sections and stretches from various stages of street surface technology. As the extremly interesting “Route 66 Study Act of 1990″ remarks:
“It can be argued that the miracle of the 20th century was not the automobile, but the construction of the vast network of highways that gave motorists someplace to go…”
( Copyright 1995 for this study: California Historic Route 66 Association , the study itself was comissioned by the US congress as a Public Law in 1990 !) .
Early street construction engineering terms like “continuosely surfaced” , “multi- tonnage- capability” or “all- weather- route” teach us the basics of proper roadwork : a road is a road only if you can drive it during heavy rain , with almost any vehicle you desire , and without too many surprises on the way . As such , the legends of “Early stretches of gravel road 66” in almost any of the manly fan- books for motorcentric 66 enthusiasts seem contradictory to us , as the Route 66 clearly was the first system of roads to do AWAY with the gravel roads . However , we still took a photo of one of those stretches, in an effort to capture every nuance of our experience . Please get up from your stool to honor one of the oldest inches of 66- nostalgia ( today the flag is flown at full mast ) , somewhere in Texas :
This is not a road .
Real roadwork started in 1910 , by laying brick to brick by hand as the fourth picture in this series of reworking the old surface in Sangamon County, IL shows us . We drove on a nice stretch of this brick- surfaced 66 near Auburn, IL : 
This is a road .
The origin of those bricks is hard to backtrace , although some research shows us that a brick factory in GLEN CARBON, IL, near St. Louis , was very active in the 1920´s , so let´s create a new small- town legend from those findings : The “Saint Louis Press Brick Company” was a major source for Route 66 surfacing ! In other News today the city of “Galena hopes to strike gold with old Route 66 bricks” (copyright: Dodge City Daily Globe), trying to sell some of the old 66 bricks via EBAY , as Interim City Manager Jim Ray, 77, tells us “We’re going to run the 20 and see what happens, It could be $20 each. It could be $50. It could be $5.”
Portland concrete near Carlinville, MO, and more portland concrete near Stroud : 
This is a road .
The next evolutioary step after bricks was concrete . Portland concrete . Portland conrete cement , to be precise : after having read the “Study of the modulus of elasticity of polymer concrete compounds and comparative assessment of polymer concrete and portland cement concrete” I happen to know EVERYTHING about PCC , but I think I better save your time and the space here, and point you to this document, where the tiny incremental stages of the road ( Gravel Surface-> Concrete Base Brick Surface-> PC Concrete Pavement-> Concrete Base Rock Asphalt Surface ) are meticulousely documented .
Above the surface at Crookton Overpass, AZ - below the road near Shamrock, TX . 
Below the rock asphalt near Seligman, AZ .
As some parts of Route 66 served as America’s main road up to 1984 , there are many miles of beautifully surfaced , smooth , modern , asphalt , highway- like comfort . As boring as this might look in the pictures , driving is definitely more efficient , although the rhythmic hooomp— hooomp— hooomp along the PCC stretches definitely makes for some good + groovy backbeat …
Above : road to Romeroville, NM . Below : road in NM towards Santa Rosa . 
This is a road .
So , in this installment of our Route 66 adventure you learned : A road ( with bricks ) is a road ( with PCC) is a road ( with Asphalt ) , except when A road is NOT a road ( with gravel ) .
Doubtlessly U waited a lifetime for a in state- of- the- history road construction alike . So we might be overdriven by you again .
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