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Why does Route 66 matter?
66号公路到底有什么不一样？
“Hi. My name is Jean and I’m from France. And last year I went on a trip in the West Coast, and we passed by Route 66.”
“大家好。我叫珍，来自法国。去年我到西海岸走了一圈，途中就打卡了66号公路。”
“Our trip was from LA to Chicago all the way, taking the mother road, hahaha.”
“我们的行程是从洛杉矶一直到芝加哥，走的是母亲之路，哈哈哈。”
“We would stop at all the museums on the way, we stopped at the one in Elk City, Oklahoma and we stood on top of the train.”
“一路上我们参观了沿途的所有博物馆，参观了俄克拉荷马州埃尔克城的博物馆，还体验了扒火车。”
“I’m Fabian from Germany.
“我是法比安，来自德国。
Last year, I was visiting my family in California.
去年，我去看望了住在加利福尼亚的亲戚。
While driving on Route 66, I had to stop to take photos of the beautiful sunset.”
途经66号公路的时候，我不得不停下来拍夕阳，因为实在是太美了。”
“The plan of the trip is to have no plan at all.”
“这次的计划就是不做任何计划。”
“My husband and I went back and even visited Route 66 and Williams for our honeymoon.”
“我和老公回去了一趟，还去66号公路和威廉姆斯公路自驾度蜜月了。”
“Hey.”
“嘿。”
Why is Route 66 not only famous, but internationally famous?
为什么66号公路不仅在国内很有名，在国外也很有名呢？
“Starting off Route 66.”
“从66号公路出发。”
The road starts in Chicago, slides down the country, and ends up all the way in Santa Monica.
这条路从芝加哥开始，一路往南，终点是圣莫尼卡。
Convert that distance to time and you get a different story.
把这个距离转换成时间，你会得到一个不一样的故事。
In 1926, the road was commissioned.
1926年，修建工作开始落地。
By 1957, the Interstate Highway System began, and it bypassed the route by 1970.
到1957年，《州际公路法案》开始生效，然而，1970年时，该法案绕开了这条路。
In 1985, Route 66 was fully decommissioned.
1985年，66号公路全面退役。
Route 66 has been in the shadows twice as long as it was in the spotlight.
自建成以来，66号公路有过风光也有过黯淡，后者的时间要比前者长出一倍。
But there’s still this energy around it.
但是，其能量光圈并没有完全消失。
I talked to Ron Warnick, he’s the editor of Route 66 News, which is an obsessive Route 66 site,
为此，我采访了罗恩·瓦尼克，他是专门做66号公路这一主题的“66号公路新闻”网站的编辑，
and his articles just came alive with people reminiscing about Route 66.
他的文章里有很多大家对66号公路的回忆，特别生动有趣。
“It was about Oklahoma Joe's.
“都是因为“俄克拉荷马州的乔”这家店。
It was this dive bar in Albuquerque near the University of New Mexico campus.
这是距离新墨西哥大学不远的阿尔伯克基有一家消费不高的酒吧。
I put it out there, and pretty soon, all sorts of people were exchanging their memories about the bar.”
我就在网上写了写关于那个酒吧的回忆，很快，各式各样的人就开始分享他们对这家酒吧的记忆了。”
This road has three distinct eras.
这条路经历了三个不同的时代。
It’s got secrets, and surprises, and even a future.
它有秘密，有惊喜，甚至还有未来。
The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo has a challenge:
位于阿马里洛的德克萨斯牛排大农场对食客们发起了一项挑战：
eat 72 ounces of steak and sides, in under an hour, and you get it for free.
在不到一个小时的时间里，吃下72盎司的牛排和肋排，就能免单。
I am going to switch to phone mode here. Alright.
现在我要切换到视频通话模式了。好吧。
Before you get to a cardiac arrest-threatening challenge like this,
在接受这样一个带有死亡威胁性质的挑战之前，
you actually have to go back more than a hundred years.
我们要先将时间倒回到一百多年前去看一看。
Before Federal highways, networks of largely privately owned auto trails, like the ones on this 1920 Rand McNally map, were standard.
在联邦高速公路出现之前，像这张1920年兰德麦克纳利公司印制的地图一样，基本上，私人车道才是当时最常见的道路。
Look at the chaotic number of options in the legend.
看看图例中这些混乱的选项。
As Federal highway funding laws were passed in the 1910s and 1920s,
20世纪10到20年代，随着联邦公路拨款法的通过，
new maps planned a linked highway system, like this one drafted by World War I General John Pershing.
新的地图，比如第一次世界大战期间约翰·潘兴将军起草的地图规划了的是一个相互连接的公路系统。
This telegram from April 30, 1926, from Springfield, Missouri established Route 66.
这封1926年4月30日发自密苏里州斯普林菲尔德的电报确立了66号公路的存在。
(they initially wanted the nice round number of Route 60, but settled for 66)
(他们原本想用整数60来命名这条公路，但最终还是选择了66这个数字)。
Cyrus Avery is called the “father of Route 66” for helping create the highway to promote his home of Tulsa and creating the U.S. Highway 66 Association the next year.
赛勒斯·艾弗里被誉为“66号公路之父”，因为他不仅帮助修建了这条公路，以宣传他的故乡塔尔萨，还在第二年成立了美国66号公路协会。
That connection from Chicago to Santa Monica was always a weird shape, and less intuitive than a transcontinental road.
从芝加哥到圣莫尼卡的这条路一路上形状都很奇怪，也不像横贯大陆的公路那么直观。
But it had lobbying interest behind it and a good starting point with existing roads.
但它在游说人士眼里颇具吸引力，其现有的路段也为它提供了一个良好的开端。
Texaco rated road conditions in maps like this 1934 one.
德士古公司在他们印制的地图，比如1934年的这份地图上对道路状况做了评级。
As the legend shows, Route 66 was just a graded road in parts, basically flattened dirt.
正如传说的那样，66号公路只是部分路段属于等级公路，基本上都是平坦的土路。
Look at the journey from Amarillo to Glenrio.
阿马里洛到格伦里奥的路段就是如此。
There’s still parts of Route 66 that look like this today.
今天，66号公路的有些路段仍然是这个样子。
But they finished paving the whole thing in 1937.
但是，他们还是在1937年完成了整条路的铺设工作。
To get all that work started in the 1920s,
为了能让这条路在20年代开始动工，
the Route 66 association pushed stunts and did publicity that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in the 1950s and 60s.
66号公路协会使出了很多绝技，做的宣传就算是放到50、60年代似乎都不会显得不合时宜。
When a transcontinental footrace called the “Bunion Derby” was run,
“邦宁德比”杯全美竞走比赛启动后，
the association made sure a big part of it took place on Route 66.
协会成功地让比赛大部分时间都在66号公路上进行。
But it was struggle that initially made Route 66’s reputation.
但最初使66号公路成名的正是煎熬。
“We’re going to California, ain’t we? Alright then, let’s go to California.”
“我们要去加利福尼亚，是吗？”好吧，去就去。”
The Great Depression and Dust Bowl — a rut of drought and erosion — sent families looking West for a better life.
大萧条和沙尘暴——干旱加风沙侵蚀——迫使许多家庭不得不迁往西部谋生。
Route 66 was perfectly designed to scoop them up,
66号公路的设计完美地契合了大家的这一需求，
leading John Steinbeck to write that these migrants “come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads.
约翰·斯坦贝克就曾在他的书中写道，这些移民“从支岔道路，从火车线、从密布车辙的乡村路汇入66号公路。
66 is the mother road, the road of flight.”
66号公路是他们的母亲之路，也是他们的背井离乡之路。”
Though records show that highways 60 and 70 actually admitted more traffic to California, Route 66 had become the iconic “mother road.”
尽管有记录显示，实际上为加州带来了更多人流量的是60号公路和70号公路，但成为经典的“母亲之路”的却是66号公路。
And then things really got going.
接下来的事情就顺利多了。
