Shifting Roadways

Shifting Roadways. Changes Driven by the Auto. Lions Lake is a testament to the changing face of Route 66. Dwight started as a farming community on the Chicago and Alton Railroad. When automobiles began replacing horses, people demanded better roads. Borrow pits, like Lions Lake, supplied the raw materials necessary for building major paved arteries through the country. , Road construction of State Route 4 through Dwight (parts of which became Route 66) in the early 1920s used steam-powered equipment assisted by mule and human labor. , Lions Lake, This lake began as a borrow pit dug for road fill when the Route 66 Bypass was built in 1946. In the 1990s, this area became a community park and the water-filled pit was named Lions Lake. Many of these former borrow pits can be seen along the old highway. , A Shifting Roadway, · In the early 1920s, State Route 4 (following the Pontiac Trail) was constructed on the northwest side of Dwight and ran through downtown., · In 1926, Route 66 connected Dwight to the nation. A portion followed Route 4, but it bypassed downtown to the northwest., · By 1946, increasing traffic mandated the building of a four-lane Route 66 Bypass that ran northwest of the original alignment., · Finally in 1977, Interstate 55 opened still further northwest and ended the era of Route 66. . This historical marker was erected by Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway. It is Near Dwight in Livingston County Illinois