A stretch of Route 66 once played "America the Beautiful" as you drove over it.
While driving Route 66 offers its share of thrills — or kicks, if you prefer — for motorists following the path of their California-dreamin' predecessors, a lengthy drive gets monotonous no matter how historic the thoroughfare. Which is why road-trippers rejoiced when a quarter-mile stretch of the famed highway outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, was rebuilt in 2014 to play the uplifting notes of "America the Beautiful" for cars that rolled by.
This bit of motor magic relies on the premise that sounds are recognized as musical notes if they vibrate at a specific frequency; a thump vibrating 330 times per second, for example, is a clear E note to our ears. With that in mind, a series of rumble strips — road indentations normally used to alert lane-drifting drivers — were pressed into the right side of this length of highway at carefully calculated intervals to produce a precise sequence of notes. When a vehicle drove over the rumble strips at exactly 45 mph, the unmistakable strains of what many consider an alternate national anthem could be heard wafting from below.
Sadly, while much of Route 66 has been preserved, the music-producing segment was left to die a slow, dissonant death. Drivers began reporting that some of the rumble strips had been paved over by 2020, and by July 2023, there were additional reports that the short-lived “musical highway” had seemingly been silenced for good.
Shortly after the end of World War II, songwriter Bobby Troup and his wife Cynthia left their home in Pennsylvania and headed west on Interstate 40 to embark on a new life in California. Troup later recalled that Cynthia suggested he write about their journey along I-40, an idea he rejected since their path would soon switch to Route 66 for the remainder of the drive. However, a more recent interview with a granddaughter indicates that it was Troup who floated the idea of an I-40 song, with his traveling companion suggesting they wait for the upcoming highway change. At least both agreed that it was the missus who came up with the idea to "get your kicks on Route 66," and Troup went on to complete the catchy ditty that was later recorded by the King Cole Trio en route to becoming a celebrated entry in the Great American Songbook.
