A Bridge to the Past

A bridge on a city street began as part of one of Illinois’s earliest major highways, tied to the route between Chicago and St. Louis that opened as the Pontiac Trail in 1915, was resurfaced and renamed Route 4 in 1918, became the first paved road connecting those cities in 1924, and was designated as U.S. Route 66 in 1926, making Illinois the first state with its entire segment fully paved. The bridge’s abutments date from 1926, while the rest of the bridge was rebuilt in 2005 in its original design. Nearby, the Ideal Garage, Service Station, & Lunch Counter opened in 1927, and the adjoining Ideal Cabin Court offered 10 octagon-shaped cabins for travelers in the era before motels. Route 66 also served as a testing ground for highway engineering, as concrete bridges became popular after steel reinforcement was perfected in the early 1900s and offered lower maintenance than metal bridges. One bridge abutment still bears an original Route 4 marker, the last of its kind in Illinois.

Pontiac, Illinois · United States