By Wayne Brew | September 11, 2017

My name is Wayne Brew. I have been teaching full-time at Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) for 17 years. While I typically teach geography and earth science, I was granted the privilege of sabbatical for the Fall semester. Webster’s dictionary defines a sabbatical as “a period of time during which someone does not work at his or her regular job and is able to rest, travel, do research, etc.” The travel and research part is what I will be focusing on. I have two goals in my travels:

1. Travel first generation interstates and document the cultural landscape of the road;
2. Visit as many National Parks as possible. My hope is to bring the images and stories to my students. After visiting Mount Saint Helens in September 2016, inspired this journey.

What are first generation interstates?

The first generation interstates are the early numbered roads built in the 1920s, before the limited access interstates that were built starting in the 1950s. A good overview of the early history of the interstate highways can be found in the book Divided Highways by Tom Lewis. In the 1920s the clamoring by the public for improved roads along with a great technocratic advocate in Washington DC, James McDonald (Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads), lead to the building of the first numbered interstate system. It did not hurt that the federal government provided 50% of the construction costs. The goal of many of the early interstates was to use existing roads to connect county seats and in the process, form continuous and improved (federal standards for paving and bridges) well-marked roads. From the 1920s through the early 1960s these were the main roads that carried folks across great distances. The newer interstate system does this much more efficiently, which in essence has turned the first generation interstates into back roads.

My recent travel and research interests have taken me along the whole length of Interstate Route 11 from the Canadian Border in New York to New Orleans. Route 11 is an example of the first set of federal interstate highways built in the 1920s. It took me three summers to cover the 1,700 miles of Route 11 which led to three publications:

• Past (Volume 37, 2014)
• Past (Volume 38, 2015)
• Past (Volume 39, 2016)

I was pleasantly surprised, and pleased, that the work has been well received. I have been invited to present my work at a Creek Run Environmental's company meeting in Portland, Oregon. I was also asked to author a chapter of a book “The Changing World Language Map” (edited by Stanley Brunn) using the concept of the cultural landscape that ‘speaks’ to the traveler along our highways. The chapter was completed in June 2017 and was accepted for publication. I also completed an article about Interstate Route 9 that has been accepted for publication in the on-line journal PAST in Fall 2017.

My sabbatical allows me the time to tackle two east-west routes this fall; Route 2 and Route 50. Route 2 is interesting because it is split into an eastern portion (which I completed earlier this summer) that runs from Houlton, Maine to Rouses Point, New York and a western portion that begins in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and runs to Everett, Washington (just north of Seattle) for a total of over 2500 miles. Route 50 is about 3000 miles across the middle of the United States and is referred to as the “loneliest road in America”. It currently runs from Ocean City, Maryland to Sacramento, California.

If you are curious about the numbering system...The east-west roads were given even numbers sequential with the lower numbers starting in the north (Route 2 just south of the Canadian border) and increasing to the south (Route 90 along the Gulf Coast). Odd numbers were used for the roads that run north-south increasing from the east (Route 1 along the Atlantic Coast) to west (Route 99 near the west coast). The numbering for the second generation of interstates was reversed to avoid as much confusion as possible with the first generation. Examples include Route 95 that parallels Route 1 along the east coast and Route 10 which parallels Route 90 in the south. You can find more information about the history and numbering of the interstates in the book The Road Taken: The History and Future of America's Infrastructure by Henry Petroski (2016).

So how does one go about this?

I depend on the work of scholars and keen observers of cultural landscapes. I had the great fortune and privilege to be taught how to interpret ordinary landscapes by Professor Peirce Lewis as an undergraduate student. As a geologist I learned how to read and interpret physical landscapes. I am grateful to Peirce Lewis to provide the epiphany that cultural landscapes can also be read and understood. Since being taught as an undergrad the basics I have had the privilege to meet and read other scholars who have written histories of commercial architecture (gas stations, motels, diners, etc.) along the highways; Keith Sculle, John Jakle, and Darrell Norris to name just a few. Once you know this visual language, domestic and commercial architecture are to the roadside observer what fossils are to geologist, namely of way of dating buildings. This allows me to peel back the layers and gain an understanding of sequence. I also note and document when buildings are updated or repurposed. The generally accepted term for this, adaptive reuse, documents how humans adapt their buildings to the constantly changing economic and cultural environments the road finds itself in. You can see many examples of this in my previous work (above) on Route 11.

As I trace out roads I follow the marked pathway, but also consult historical USGS topographic maps to identify the original route through cities (and for other locations) and follow that route also. I have found that the historical USGS maps are user friendly, informative, and can be accessed at the link provided below. This website has proved to be invaluable to completing my projects.

I have recorded two short videos of how I use this mapping:

• USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer (Version 1)
• USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer (Version 2)

What about other roadside attractions?

The joy of traveling backroads and the people met along the way are well documented in two wonderful books that I am reading again to prepare for my adventure “Travels with Charley” by John Steinbeck and “Blue Highways” by William Least Heat Moon. They are both excellent story tellers that captured the time period (1960 and 1981 respectively) and the mood of the people and the country they were traveling through. I tell stories through pictures and try to capture a visual biography of the roads I travel. I also like to have fun and document the many wonderful surprises and oddities found along the road.

I plan to post updates as make my west and then back east. Please check in when you can...