There is an entire history of transportation infrastructure to be written about the American Bottom. From the proposed terminus of the National Road, through the Edwardsville wood-plank road, through the 19th century hub of steamboat traffic, to the later convergence of railyards—the American Bottom has been a surface on which infrastructure has long overdetermined the settlement patterns and ecological ruptures of the region. The iconic Route 66 cuts through this bottomland as well—on its cross country trajectory from Chicago to Los Angeles.. Mitchell, IL, is where the few remaining artifacts from “America’s Main Street” can be found. While the original routing of this iconic highway was over the McKinley Bridge (entering in the clogged warehouse district of St. Louis from Venice, IL), in 1934 it was shifted to the MacArthur Bridge (entering St. Louis just south of downtown). Shortly thereafter, the highway was officially rerouted over the Chair of Rocks Bridge, where it entered St. Louis in a less congested northerly stretch of the city. This sort of highway meandering keeps Route 66 buffs busy in their retracement of a mythic, original route.