Before the present day RT 6 expressway was built, RT 6 ran from Columbia through Willimantic on Main Street and on to North Windham. Residents who lived in the area prior to the expressway may remember seeing the historical markers that were on RT 6 near Chronicle Road if driving east or near the airport when driving west. As today’s photo shows, the markers indicated the road’s designation as “The Grand Army of the Republic Highway”. Unfortunately, over the years, the signs commemorating the group deteriorated, were vandalized or disappeared entirely. (Many states, however, have stepped up and are replacing the markers with new markers and/or signs.)  The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R..) was an organization of Union veterans of the Civil War and was formed in 1866. It was a nationwide organization of Union Civil War veterans initially formed to help the widows and orphans of fallen Union servicemen, but it later focused upon promoting patriotic activities and decorating the graves of the war dead.  In 1909, the 21st Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers (“The Gallant Old Regiment”) met at the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Hall along with members of various G.A.R. posts throughout the state. The May 16^th reunion was also the anniversary of the 1864 Battle of Drury’s Bluff in which the regiment had played a prominent part. US RT 6 came into being in October, 1925 when a Joint Board on Interstate Highways recommended a numbered system for over 75,000 miles of highways in the United States. One of the U.S. numbered highways in Connecticut (along with US 1,5 and 7) was to be a 707 mile stretch that would become US 6 In CT, the highway would begin at the state line in South Killingly and then run through Willimantic on to Bolton, East Hartford etc. to the New York-Connecticut border just west of Danbury. (Before 1925, most of what became RT 6 was known as Route 3 of the “New England Road marking system”. The designated US 6 highway actually begins in Provincetown, MA and ends in Long Beach, CA. It took almost twelve years for all the sections of the designated highway to fall into place and when they did, in 1937, it became the longest transcontinental U.S. route at 3,652 miles stretching through fourteen states. A dot.gov website says that, “Major William L. Anderson, Jr., of the U.S. Army conceived the idea of designating U.S. 6 the Grand Army of the Republic Highway to honor the Union forces during the Civil War. Based on his recommendation, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War began promoting the idea in April 1934”. It was not an easy task since each state owned its own section of the highway and therefore had to act on the proposal through bills in their legislatures. While CT signed on in 1937, the  final state did not agree until 1948 and finally, in May,1953, the formal dedication of the highway took place. Yet, as a whole, US6 was nowhere near what we have today. It was still a pieced-together patchwork of highways.   Historian George R. Stewart commented that, "Route 6 runs uncertainly from nowhere to nowhere, scarcely to be followed from one end to the other, except by some devoted eccentric." The only actual monument commemorating the Grand Army is at the western end of the highway and was put up by the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War. It reads, “This monument marks the western end of a coast to coast highway extending a distance of three thousand six hundred fifty-two miles through fourteen states. It was erected by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War in memory of the heroic services and unselfish devotion of the Union soldiers, sailors and marines who laid down their lives on the altar of sacrifice during the Civil War. National Highway first proposed by Major William L. Anderson, Jr., U.S.A. of Massachusetts. For what they did and dared, let us remember them today.” The next time you drive on a section of US RT 6, spare a thought for those veterans and a prayer for all of today’s service personnel.