Route 66 was never meant to be a destination. Before it attained its mythic sheen, the highway was simply about passing through. Ariz. The earliest version of the road was steeply graded and treacherously narrow. That was one reason the feds built a wider, safer road with entrance and exit ramps. He first hit the highway at age 7 in 1956 en route to Disneyland.
Oddities still abound.
After Kingman, the road begins to wind up into the Black Mountains. Sitgreaves Pass is thought to be the steepest part, rising 1,400 feet in 9 miles to the summit. Model A's and Model T's had to go up in reverse just to get up enough power because of their gravity-fed fuel systems. Later, in the 1930s and '40s, eastbound drivers used to pay locals to tow them over. I'm glad I didn't know this when I was at the wheel.