What a difference a century can make. Over the course of 100 years, a number of U.S. destinations have undergone major metamorphoses. Development, infrastructure, and clever engineering have helped to transform these desert outposts, swampy islands, and dense forests into glitzy cities, sleek beaches, and streamlined parks. See how six popular U.S. tourist destinations have dramatically changed over the last 100 years.

Miami Beach – Florida

A century ago, Miami Beach was little more than a sandbar in the Atlantic Ocean. Formerly the site of a coconut plantation, the swampy spit of land was a hospitable environment for mangrove trees, alligators, and mosquitoes, and not much else. It wasn’t until developer Carl Fisher got involved — helping to fund a bridge that connected the sandbar to the mainland and pumping out muck from the bay — that terra firma appeared. And thus, Miami Beach was chartered on March 26, 1915.

A self-made millionaire, Fisher was also involved in the development of the luxury hotels and high-end estates that began to dominate the barrier island’s coastline. Over the next 100 years, this type of development defined Miami Beach as tourists flocked to its artificial sandy shores. With time, Miami Beach became a trendy hot spot for tourists, beachgoers, nightclubbers, and art lovers — a far cry from its humble beginnings.

National Mall – Washington, D.C.

Using the word “mall” to describe a park might seem counterintuitive, but the term was coined to describe a green space where the 18th-century lawn game pall-mall was played. Before long, “mall” became a descriptor for a tree-lined park, and it was with this in mind that the National Mall was included in the 1791 design of Washington, D.C. Although the park was delayed more than 100 years, the McMillan Plan breathed new life into the idea in the 20th century.

At the turn of the century, the National Mall was little more than a collection of unplanned forested parks, a set of old train tracks, and “tempos,” a nickname for temporary concrete structures built during World War I. Introduced in 1901, the McMillan Plan proposed a more streamlined landscape, unifying the open space between the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and the Jefferson Memorial, and allowing for the Washington Monument to stand centrally among these locations. Today, several additional museums and institutions face the park, without impeding the symmetry or natural beauty of the iconic tree-lined space. 

Niagara Falls – New York

In the course of its 12,000-year lifespan, 100 years is a drop in the bucket for Niagara Falls. But in the past century, the famous falls have seen their fair share of change. In 1950, Canadian and U.S. officials diverted the flow of Niagara Falls by redirecting half of the water to fuel hydroelectric turbines. At certain times of the day, the falls’ current was cut another 50%, which means the Niagara Falls of 100 years ago were vastly more powerful than what we see today. 

In order to study the region’s geology, engineers also allowed for the falls to run dry over the course of a five-month period in 1969. Around this time, they excavated the landscape and modified Horseshoe Falls to improve it aesthetically and create a crest over the falls. Other human-made endeavors, such as the addition of the Rainbow Bridge in 1941 and the addition of the Table Rock Visitor Center in 1926, have vastly changed the original appearance of this natural wonder over the past century.

Venice Beach – California

At the turn of the 20th century, Venice Beach was unrecognizable from the place we know today. Now a lively beach town and boardwalk, Venice back then was no more than a simple fishing village, home to about 2,000 people who lived and worked by the sea. In 1905, a developer named Abbot Kinney saw potential in the quiet town and implemented a grand plan to transform it into a profitable resort.

Inspired by Venice, Italy, Kinney built a network of narrow canals to connect various establishments, including a hotel, a restaurant, and a bathing pavilion. Gondolas were employed to ferry guests along the water, and romantic footbridges and piazzas were built to add to the resort’s European vibe. As the town prospered and grew, many of the canals were later filled with cement in order to accommodate the newfangled automobiles of the era.

By the 1920s, Venice Beach had become a major tourist destination, especially beloved by Hollywood celebrities, wealthy entrepreneurs, and flappers, who were drawn to the town’s open-minded attitude. In this vein, the spirit of Venice Beach has changed little, as it remains an inclusive, vibrant, and carefree destination in Southern California.

Yellowstone National Park – Wyoming and Montana

If you were to time travel to Yellowstone National Park 100 years ago, you might be surprised at how much it’s changed. For starters, the first national park was astonishingly affordable. For a grand total of around $50, you could book a five-day package, including meals, lodging, and stagecoach tours. You’d also find the park’s flora and fauna to be vastly different, partially due to the reintroduction of wolves in the 1990s and the devastating wildfires of the 1980s, which impacted a total of 500,000 acres. 

What you wouldn’t find throughout the park would be smooth roads. Although the park has over 300 miles of paved roads today, modern roads did not yet exist a century ago. This meant traveling by car was a bumpy, adventurous, and somewhat dangerous experience that required traversing muddy historic roads and crossing rickety wooden bridges. Back then, the railway was the primary mode of transportation, with five different train stations located throughout the park. As the popularity of automobiles increased over the decades, the park depended less on trains, and the tracks were eventually removed in the 1980s. 

Fremont Street – Las Vegas, Nevada

These days, Las Vegas is wild because of its nightlife, but 100 years ago, it was better known as the Wild West. Fremont Street — the six-block pedestrian-only avenue in downtown Las Vegas — was an entirely different landscape at the turn of the century. Back then, the area was a remote desert outpost with unpaved streets, horses hitched to wagons, and frontier-style architecture.

By 1925, Fremont Street was transformed into a leafy oasis, with a grove of trees planted on the corner of Fifth Street to shade pedestrians from the intense desert heat. Eventually, the trees were removed and the Neonopolis complex was erected, complete with concrete towers, bright city lights, and a zip line. Across from the Fremont Street Experience, the Plaza Hotel, a Las Vegas institution by today’s standards, was built on the site of the town’s original railroad depot. But for those in search of authentic Las Vegas history, the railways’ original tracks are still located behind the famed hotel. 

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, the Underground Railroad — a network of people, places, and routes leading from the South to the free states in the North — allowed for an estimated 100,000 people to escape the bondage of slavery. As their work was illegal at the time, members of the Underground Railroad used a coded language to shroud their activity, referring to the runaway enslaved people as “passengers,” and the people who housed them as “station masters.” Station masters throughout the North operated discreet rescue missions by opening their homes as safe havens for passengers on the journey to freedom. Today, the following seven historic sites from the Underground Railroad tell the story of the station masters who helped to ensure the safe passage of thousands of people seeking freedom, making them an essential visit for any U.S. history buff.

Harriet Tubman National Historical Park – Auburn, New York

Harriet Tubman National Historical Park encompasses Tubman’s former house and church in Auburn, located in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The historic site also features the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes, which Tubman started to help elderly members of her community, and where she passed away in 1913. In the pre-Civil War era, Auburn was the perfect choice for Harriet Tubman’s permanent home after she escaped slavery herself. Not only did the upstate hamlet have a strong abolitionist community, but it also served as a secret nexus for the Underground Railroad. 

Arguably the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad, Tubman worked tirelessly to free enslaved African Americans from bondage. In the space of 10 years, she personally rescued about 70 people, including several members of her own family, and led many to Canada, where slavery was illegal. Today, the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park offers educational programs and exhibits about Tubman’s life and her crucial work as a freedom fighter.

Seward House – Auburn, New York

William H. Seward was a fellow resident of Auburn, a longtime friend of Harriet Tubman, and an active conductor on the Underground Railroad. A wealthy and prominent politician, Seward engaged in several illegal acts to personally help Tubman, including selling her home in Auburn and housing Tubman’s niece after her niece escaped to the North.

A regular station on the Underground Railroad, Seward House has been turned into a museum that showcases the lives of the Seward family and the work of the Underground Railroad. The house’s location in central New York was ideal, as it bordered Canada. At their home, Seward and his wife Francis often provided shelter, food, and assistance to people escaping slavery, using a room above the woodshed as a secret dormitory to house freedom seekers. 

Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims – Brooklyn, New York

Nicknamed the “Grand Central Depot” of the Underground Railroad, Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims was a highly frequented station in New York City. Using the church’s basement to hide passengers, station masters provided food, shelter, and assistance for escaped enslaved peoples, serving as a welcome safe haven for over a decade leading up to the Civil War.

The church’s leader was Henry Ward Beecher, who was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author who penned the influential 1852 antislavery book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. As the church’s pastor for 40 years during the height of slavery, Beecher, a staunch abolitionist, worked endlessly to condemn the practice, often preaching its evils from his pulpit in Brooklyn.

John Rankin House – Ripley, Ohio

Unassuming as it may be, the John Rankin House was a prominent station on the Underground Railroad in southern Ohio. Located directly across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a slave state, the home was the first stop in a free state for many passengers. A committed abolitionist, Rankin routinely opened his home to passengers and was responsible for helping approximately 2,000 people escape to freedom. 

Rankin devised a system to communicate with runaways from a distance. By placing a lantern in the window, Rankin indicated the river was safe to cross, allowing passengers to use the light as a beacon to access his home. In addition to housing, feeding, and clothing freedom seekers, Rankin coordinated with other station masters farther north to personally ensure the safe passage of thousands of people.

John Brown Farm and Gravesite – Lake Placid, New York

John Brown was a prominent abolitionist who aided passengers on the Underground Railroad by opening his home and other properties to runaways seeking refuge on the journey north. Located in Lake Placid, the John Brown Farm State Historic Site commemorates and honors Brown, who fought against the institution of slavery throughout his life.

In addition to organizing the League of Gileadites, a secret organization that attempted to protect runaways from the so-called “slave catchers” who pursued them, Brown also played an integral role in the Harper’s Ferry Raid of 1859. The purpose of the raid was to inspire a revolt by appropriating and distributing weapons to enslaved peoples. Unfortunately, Brown was captured and later executed during the raid. He was buried at his home and future historic site in upstate New York.

Dr. Nathan Thomas House – Schoolcraft, Michigan

Dr. Nathan Thomas and his wife, Pamela, were some of the most active members of the Underground Railroad in Michigan. As members of the Quaker faith, a staunchly antislavery religion, the pair were firmly rooted in the abolitionist movement. Their home in Schoolcraft was a busy stop for passengers fleeing the South for the safety of Canada, and it is believed they housed at least 1,000 formerly enslaved peoples over the course of 20 years. 

As a physician, Nathan was uniquely suited to help passengers on their journey north, providing aid and medical care, while Pamela took care of logistics. All the while, the two were forced to act under the utmost secrecy, in order to secure the safety of the passengers in their care. Their home, the Dr. Nathan Thomas House, has since been designated as a historic site by the National Register of Historic Places.

Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark – Peterboro, New York

After assuming a great amount of wealth in the fur trade, Gerrit Smith became the richest landowner in New York state during the mid-19th century. In the years after making his fortune, Smith dedicated his time and money to support the abolitionist movement. He gave away parcels of land in order to help freed Black families become self-sufficient in the North and often purchased enslaved peoples directly from enslavers in order to free them. 

A vocal advocate against the evils of slavery, Smith worked closely with Frederick Douglass and John Brown, offering his estate to host meetings and gatherings associated with the abolitionist movement. The Gerrit Smith Estate in upstate New York is now a National Historic Landmark and remains open to the public, with several historical events held during the summer.

Route 66 holds a special place in U.S. history. Stretching from the Midwest to Southern California, the iconic highway was one of the earliest of its kind, connecting a swath of cross-country landscapes and communities for the first time. Today, its significance extends beyond its function as just a road — the once-essential highway symbolizes an early 20th-century spirit of aspiration, opportunity, and an idealization of Americana. Discover the fascinating history of Route 66 and what makes it America’s most famous road.

Where It All Started

Route 66’s early origins date back to the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1916, a funding initiative that set the stage for the country’s eventual national highway system. In 1926, America’s independent transportation trails were integrated into a unified numerical system, the United States Numbered Highway System, and Route 66 was officially established. Advertised as “the shortest, best, and most scenic route from Chicago through St. Louis to Los Angeles,” the highway was planned to traverse 2,400 miles through eight states and three time zones. Its path was plotted along a loose combination of existing local, state, and national roads, a strategic route chosen to connect rural regions to major cities across the country.

Route 66 wasn’t the country’s first major paved highway — the Lincoln Highway, stretching 3,000 miles between New York and San Francisco, predated Route 66 by over a decade  — but it was the first all-weather, year-round, fully paved highway. For a country growing increasingly infatuated with and reliant on the automobile, that made travel of all kinds more accessible.

An Instant Hit

Upon its completion in the late 1930s, Route 66 quickly became a vital corridor. It helped farmers in rural communities more easily transport their grain and produce, and it was a shorter route through more temperate climates for transport trucks between the Midwest and the Pacific coast. 

The highway also served as a vital link for migrants heading west during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, when devastating dust storms ravaged crops in the country’s southern plains. While exact figures still remain a matter of debate, some estimates suggest upwards of 400,000 people sought refuge and new opportunities in California, many of whom were able to use Route 66. It was also a key military route. During World War II, equipment and personnel frequently traveled to bases in Missouri, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, all of which were established on or near Route 66.

Mythology Is Born

For all its useful purposes, Route 66 was more than a utilitarian throughway. In the prosperous postwar era, many Americans had affordable cars, paid vacation time, and reliable highways for the first time. They took to the road like never before, and for road-trippers in the 1950s and ’60s, Route 66 was the quickest path to the great American West that dominated their TV and movie screens. Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon were popular natural attractions, while Las Vegas and Los Angeles drew record numbers of people seeking sunshine and glamour. 

Following the route’s popularity surge, roadside diners, motels, and attractions began to spring up across the country. Although author John Steinbeck had already dubbed Route 66 “the Mother Road” in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, it was Jack Kerouac’s 1957 book On the Road that cemented a generation’s love of road trips. Route 66 became more than just a road — it became a symbol of American optimism and adventure. Its popularity soared through the 1950s and ’60s, thanks in part to its portrayal in literature and music, including Nat King Cole’s “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66.” Route 66 even had an eponymous 1960s TV series that romanticized the idea of a cross-country trek along the storied highway.

Keeping History Alive

By 1970, however, Route 66 was in decline. President Eisenhower, inspired by the efficiency of Germany’s Autobahn, had signed the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956, and over the next decade, Route 66 underwent significant changes. Sections of the original road were gradually upgraded, bypassed, or entirely replaced by new multilane highways designed for higher speeds and heavier traffic. Throughout the 1970s, the famed route was mostly replaced by a series of interstate highways. In 1984, after the completion of Interstate 40, Route 66 was officially decommissioned.

Many of the the mom-and-pop shops and motels that relied on the Mother Road’s traffic faded away, but a new nostalgic experience took over. Since it lost its official highway status, historic associations, local governments, and businesses have worked to safeguard Route 66’s legacy, preserving landmarks and restoring the beloved kitschy vintage signage that dots its path. Several segments of Route 66 are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, while others, like New Mexico’s sun-drenched slice of the legendary road, have earned National Scenic Byway designations. 

Small towns along the route continue to celebrate their connection to Route 66 with festivals, museums, and annual events, ensuring that its legacy is preserved for future generations. Tourists along the famous trek are certainly less numerous than before, but now, the experience is all about quirkiness and nostalgia. For example, many flock to the Cadillac Ranch art installation in Amarillo, Texas, eager to leave their own mark on the graffiti-covered cars, while others visit some of the strip’s long-standing motels, such as the Wagon Wheel near Cuba, Missouri, or the Blue Swallow in Tucumcari, New Mexico. What these attractions lack in luxury, they more than make up for in atmosphere and history.