Route 66 east of Chain of Rocks Bridge circa 1941
This photo of the Chain of Rocks Bridge got me thinking: It looks like Route 66 makes a turn to the left in the distance. Where did it go from the east end of the bridge. I wanted to know.
Route 66 was first routed across the Mississippi River in 1926 across the McKinley Bridge from Venice to St. Louis. This continued for the first three years of the "Mother Road's" existence. In 1929, Route 66 was rerouted - from Madison Avenue and Broadway then south on Fourth Street to East St. Louis and across the MacArthur Bridge - to the Chain of Rocks Bridge (with the 22-degree turn!). Route 66 ran west through Edwardsville then down the hill by the cemeteries (now IL Rte 157) and continued (across the now road to SIUE) into Mitchell. It passed Zane Miller's house and eventually the infamous Luna Cafe and the original St. Elizabeth Church (where Fr. Peter Kaenders once pastored), but then where? It did not go around the left curve and down Nameoki Road (Rt 203) like we do today. In 1935 Route 66 was routed across the Chain of Rocks Bridge until 1955. So where did it go and how did it hook up with the "bent" bridge? Below is a mosaic of 1941 aerial photos of Madison County. The route is quite different from what exists today.
Old Route 66 The above mosaic is made from U.S. Department of Agriculture aerial photographs taken in 1941. It shows approximately 10 miles of U.S. Route 66 from near Chain of Rocks Park to the Sunset Hills Cemetery. For a very large annotated version of this Route 66 photo, click the photo above. It's BIG and could take a while to load. You also may have to wait for it to clear up when you zoom. |
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