Image from the 1984 film Cannonball Run 2. Long have Americans embraced the automobile, and even longer have we embraced the open road.  Roads have been around for millennia, as essential links between population centers, holding civilization itself together.  The Roman Empire could not have managed its size without roads holding its farflung provinces together, and the United States is no different.   Following the invention of the automobile, roads had to be reinvented.  Before World War I, the United States had about 18 miles of paved roads from coast to coast.  The US Route System was spurred on in 1916 with the Federal Aid Road Act, which was government spending that footed half the bill for US highways across the country.  Automobile associations and manufacturers were starting to promote recreational driving, which went hand in glove with the US Route System.  Paved roads are much more appealing to drive on. One inspiration for improv...

US Route 666 has been reassigned as US Route 491.  The highway hasn't become any safer, but it did make some people feel better, for what it's worth. Running from Chicago to Los Angeles, there used to be a highway nicknamed “The Main Street of America”.  This highway was better known then as U. S. Route 66, and although the highway ceased to exist in 1985, its fame still lives on as probably the best-known highway in America. Route 66 ran from east to west (well, it ran from northeast to southwest in some places, to be exact), so it was given an even number, in accordance with the way the Department of Transportation numbers highways.  (North-south U. S. routes get odd numbers.  This system also applies to U. S. Interstate highways, but not necessarily to state highways.)  Over the years, some of the old U. S. highways have been decommissioned, usually in places where they cross big, empty spaces where an interstate highway would suit the need...