California, here we come

PART 10
THE NATIONAL OLDTRAILS ROAD, a precursor to Route 66 from 1912 to 1926, followed the course of the National Road in the east and railroads and Indian trails in the west for more than 3,000 miles coast to coast. | WIKIPEDIA
THE NATIONAL OLDTRAILS ROAD, a precursor to Route 66 from 1912 to 1926, followed the course of the National Road in the east and railroads and Indian trails in the west for more than 3,000 miles coast to coast. | WIKIPEDIA

If America’s Route 66 would come to be known as The Mother Road, then the National Old Trails Road was the grandmother.

First laid out from Baltimore, Maryland, to Los Angeles, California, in 1912 with extensions into New York City and San Francisco, it was an early success of the Good Roads Movement that had lobbied for auto-worthy routes since the 1890s. Marked with redwhite- and-blue signposts, …