SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – 70 years ago, Missouri awarded its first construction contract under the new interstate highway program along the corridor that became Interstate 44.
The anniversary arrived quietly — without the songs, neon signs or road-trip romanticism that have long surrounded its older neighbor, Route 66, which is marking its own 100th anniversary this year.
Route 66’s mythos vs. I-44’s utility
Sean Fitzgibbons, executive director of History Museum on the Square, said literature and generations of travelers gave Route 66 a cultural weight that few roads have matched.
“John Steinbeck wrote about it. So it had like this mythos behind it. And I think people, once that kind of took hold, people really enjoyed seeing what was, quote unquote, the real America by doing Route 66 or taking the mother road through the country,” Fitzgibbons said…