>> from george washington to george w. bush, every sunday at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern, we feature the presidency, a weekly series exploring presidents, their policies, and legacies. you are watching american history tv all weekend and every weekend on c-span three. >> the c-span cities tour travels the country, exploring the american story. more 2011, we have been to than 200 communities across the nation. our staff is staying close to the to the -- due to coronavirus. next, a look at one of our city visits. announcer: established in 1926, u.s. route 66 was one of the original highways in the u.s. highway system, carrying motorists over 2400 miles from chicago, illinois to santa monica, california. in their book, "a matter of

time: route 66 through the lens of change," photographer ellen and route 66 historian nick gerlich capture scenes along the route that speak to its past. while in amarillo, we rode along with gerlich, following the path of the old highway. >> why do you think this highway is still popular today, even after decades after it was decommissioned? mr. gerlich: it has a lot to do with nostalgia today. people want to revisit places that maybe they experienced as a child. that is a huge part of the nostalgia. but there is another kind of nostalgia as well. it is called anna moya. it is a desire to visit a place in the past that you never experienced. and so, for younger americans, and for international tourists of all ages for whom route 66 was only something they may have

heard about, coming to do route 66 by car or motorcycle or bicycle today is getting to visit a distant past that they have only seen in books. when route 66 came through town in 1926, our airport, at least the modern airport, was not here. today, you can drive on northeast 8th and you run into a fence that is now protecting the modern airport. but the road kept going. in fact, amarillo is one of three cities along route 66 in which the road is now buried by the modern airport. amarillo, santa rosa in new mexico, and st. louis, missouri. so, right up ahead here is where the fence and the gate are. and if you get up high enough on a ladder or on top of a vehicle,

you can see a bit of concrete from the 1920's that was still left here. it exists just beyond the outer ring road of the airport and runs up to one of the current runways. i just saw a plane take off here. it literally crossed over route 66. and so, it is still there. hardly anybody knows about this little fragment of the mother road that is hiding in plain sight, but right beyond that gate is where the old road was and still is. >> where did the idea for this book start, or come about? mr. gerlich: ellen and i met on facebook. cliche theseounds days but we did. , in several facebook groups for route 66. and she and her husband in germany had been wanting to pursue a book project, as they had been over to america a couple times prior and had done a lot of photography on the

road. and they wanted to partner with someone from america who knew the route and was prepared to write about it. so, we kind of had a blind date in may of 2015. they asked me via facebook if i would like to meet them for dinner in downtown amarillo. and i said, of course, i would love to do that. so we met, had dinner, they pitched the idea, and we all fell in love with each other. from that point forward, ellen and i started working on the structure of the book. where we wanted it to go, what kind of shots what kind of , narrations we wanted. and her husband, udo, who was already an accomplished author, had decided he was going to be our manager. he kept us on task through all of that. so, we began our joint efforts in september of 2015 on one of their subsequent trips.

and we traveled extensively the next three years, visiting many sites all along route 66. so that i could experience what ellen was experiencing, and more specifically, what she was seeing through the lens of her camera. and that had a big part in the naming of our book, "a matter of time: route 66 through the lens of change." it was not just clever wordplay, it was truly what we were doing. we wanted to chronicle change. and that is a reoccurring theme in the classes that i teach as well. i think it is important to know your history, how it all began. and then it is important to take note of where you are today. because the only way to plan for the future is to know your past and your present.

and that is what we wanted to do with the book. in those photos, we were able to chronicle the decay of many things that were once prospering along 66. but also the emergence of new businesses along route 66, as well as the evolution of older businesses. because 66 is not dead yet. i do not think it will ever be dead. parts of it are, but other parts are very much alive. and we wanted to focus on how things have changed. some things didn't change for the best, but other things did change very well. people have evolved, businesses have evolved, and they are still out there meeting the needs of tourists today. ok, we are coming into downtown amarillo on pierce street.

and we are going to stop and take a look at the herring hotel, which was built in 1926 in 5.5 months. a 13 story building, absolutely amazing that somebody could do that in 5.5 months. they cannot even build an overpass in two years here these days, much less a 13 story hotel. and it was situated just feet off route 66. it had a soft opening on december 15, 1926, which was only a month and four days after the birth of route 66. and then they had a big gala on new year's eve of 1926. and then they were in business for good. it is an amazing hotel. it has been abandoned for many years. and it needs a lot of money and a lot of tlc, but it could be

something again today. this had 600 rooms. it also had people who lived in it. in other words, it had condos before condos were a thing. folks had full-size living quarters, apartments, on the upper floors. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020]