Laying the Hard Road Through Atlanta
Known as the “Great Illini Boulevard,” Illinois State Road 4 was laid through Atlanta in 1922-23. It was the first paved road connecting Chicago and St. Louis. In 1926, it was re-designated as U.S. Route 66 taking travelers all the way to Los Angeles. This quarter mile section of pavement is a remnant of that original “Mother Road.”
Led by crew foreman Albert Irvin of Atlanta, men labored with horses and mules to scrape and build the roadbed through Atlanta in the summer of fall of 1922. After settling through the winter, concrete was poured.
A Community Effort
Communities demonstrated enthusiastic support by raising money to purchase right-of-way. In Atlanta, promoters asked fifty men to invest $200 each to guarantee the funds necessary to secure the right-of-way.
Atlanta Argus
September 30, 1921
“Without doubt the state road project is the most important and far reaching in the influence of anything proposed in many years… We hope to report next week that the community is ‘over the top’ on the proposition. ‘Let’s go!’”
Atlanta Argus
1923
“On Wednesday morning, April 18, the first work trainload of sand, gravel and concrete went chugging through town.”
Led by crew foreman Albert Irvin of Atlanta, men labored with horses and mules to scrape and build the roadbed through Atlanta in the summer of fall of 1922. After settling through the winter, concrete was poured.
A Community Effort
Communities demonstrated enthusiastic support by raising money to purchase right-of-way. In Atlanta, promoters asked fifty men to invest $200 each to guarantee the funds necessary to secure the right-of-way.
Atlanta Argus
September 30, 1921
“Without doubt the state road project is the most important and far reaching in the influence of anything proposed in many years… We hope to report next week that the community is ‘over the top’ on the proposition. ‘Let’s go!’”
Atlanta Argus
1923
“On Wednesday morning, April 18, the first work trainload of sand, gravel and concrete went chugging through town.”
