Of Culverts, Viaducts and Old 66
by Bryce Martin

Some disjointed history.

Words such as “culvert” and “viaduct” were words I heard often around the region where I grew up, but little or not at all in other parts of the country. Culverts are usually open-top and they carry water drainage. Viaducts are elevated bridges, usually for rail. My little Kansas hometown didn't have a multitude of either but you often heard the words as a way to bring a landmark into the equation when giving directions or when relating to an area in general.

What I have discovered living in other parts of the country, namely California, culverts and viaducts are as commonplace as they are from where I'm from, except they're more likely to be called ditches and overpasses.

A viaduct must have also been a common term for comedian Groucho Marx. Maybe that is why I had no trouble as a youth understanding Groucho's “Wanna buy a duck”? routine.
...

Route 66 follows as a pattern an old road through Kansas. It enters Kansas a mile east of Galena, heads northwest and, after passing Eagle-Picher, the road turns south on Main Street. Going through town it reaches 7th Street and turns west again, going through the Quaker town of Riverton. Past Riverton, it curves south at the Brush Creek Bridge and toward the community of Baxter Springs. There, Route 66 turns east and then south, running to the Oklahoma state line.

In 1961, the southern section of Interstate 44 was completed. This leg extends from Joplin to the Will Rogers Turnpike in Oklahoma. Kansas, now completely bypassed, no longer has a piece of The Mother Road. The east part of Galena, where 66, had entered the town, is now barren of travelers passing through. A new route from Galena to Joplin is, in actuality, old US 166, east along 7th Street, now a divided, four-lane.

In the 1950s, where 22nd Street crossed Short Street was a high gravel bed that formerly served as the foundation for the “old car line track” -- A public transit system, which amounted to a vast electric interurban railroad, called the Southern Missouri. The electric locomotives headed trains into and out of the areas most populated by, primarily, mill workers and mining hands. The electrics tied together Carthage, Mo., to Baxter Springs; and Miami, Okla., to Joplin, Mo. Workers and visitors could travel to the various areas of robust activity and families could pay visits. The electric railroad industry was competing with the diesels and the doomed steamers. The electrics were quieter and cleaner than steam or diesel, and operated on the fundamentals of electricity, magnetic induction, and whatnot, which means I do not have a clue how they worked.
Hey, it's electricity.

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