The U.S, back in the 19th century was not as big as it is now. Only the east part was controlled by the early British colonizers.

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In 1846, the United States went into war with an unprepared Mexico. The main reason for this war was the eagerness of the U.S to leave the east behind and start a new journey to find new resources.

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The conflict started when Texas became independent from Mexico in 1836. In the beginning, the U.S rejected the proposal to join this land as a new state, basically because Mexico said it would lead to war if this ever occurred.

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But, when in 1844, James K. Polk won the elections, he started the course of action to annex Texas, Oregon, New Mexico and California into the U.S. In order to do this, Polk offered Mexico to buy all that land, coming to a turndown from Mexico. It was then, when the U.S decided to send troops into the territory in conflict, causing Mexico to kill 12 militaries and 52 prisoners as a response for the North-American’s insolence.

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2 years later, the war ended. Mexico recognized Texas as an American state and sold California and the rest of land that the U.S was demanding for the price of 15 million dollars.   

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This victory meant a whole new territory to use. The addition of these piece of land meant a new market to trade with. Besides, the gold rush in 1849 (right after the victory of the U.S) caused that many people started looking for new places in what today is considered to be the state of California.  This is when the first roads were built, so people from other parts of the United States could commercialize with people moving to these new states.

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Road Systems before Route 66

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The National Road 

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The National Road was the first federally funded road in the United States. The decision to create a road like this was due to the settlement of many people in Ohio (by the early 19th century) and therefore the need to reach the western places of the United States.

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In 1806, the U.S Congress allowed the construction of this road, which would cross the states of Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

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After all these states were connected, the Congress of the United States decided to create and extension of this road towards the state of Missouri in St. Louis but in 1837 a financial crisis in the U.S (panic of 1837) led to the cancellation of this idea.

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The Santa Fe Trail 

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The Santa Fe Trail was a highway that joined Independence (Missouri) with Santa Fe in Mexico.

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Before the Mexican War of Independence, which took place between 1810 and 1821, Spain (which had control of Mexico) prohibited any kind of trade between the United States and Mexico. However, after Mexico gained independence, negotiations about trading started and in 1821 William Becknell (considered the father of The Santa Fe Trail) started a journey carrying goods towards Santa Fe in New Mexico, creating the road. After 2 very hard months, he finally made it to Santa Fe, and the Mexicans asked him to bring them more goods, establishing a perfect trade deal.

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This road was very used during the Gold Rush in 1849 due to the fact that many people from the east wanted to travel to California. When the Civil War started in 1861, the usage of this route was limited only to military use, but as soon as this war was over, normal use of the road was re-established.

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The Old Spanish Trail 

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The Old Spanish Trail was a looping trade route used in the 19th century, connecting six states: New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California.

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You might be wondering the reason why this route was built in such a northward-looping way. The reason for this to be is because a straight route was impossible due to the Indians tribes settled back then, like the Apaches. Another reason why this idea was impossible is the Colorado River system that was in the way, which could have caused many problems when building the trail.

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The porpoise of this road was to connect the Santa Fe Trail (that was being pretty successful, finally being able to connect North America with New Mexico) with Los Angeles to expand the trade business all the way there.

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A route like this meant a possibility to use the seaports as an international trade system to exchange goods between Mexico, or the United States, with other countries.

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The National Old Trails Road

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The growth in car ownership provoked a reaction in the U.S. The Department of Agriculture's Office of Road Inquiry, after seeing this urgent need, decided to create a transcontinental highway by joining roads that had been already created.

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In 1912, the also named “Ocean-To-Ocean-Highway”, the road was created. Three of the most important roads linked and used to create it were the ones mentioned above: The Santa Fe Trail, The National Road and The Old Spanish Trail.  

This road was the first one to join the eastern America with the western part of it in just one road, measuring the astonishing length of 4,983 km. It linked Maryland in Baltimore to California, where split into two roads, one linking San Francisco and the other one Los Angeles.

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