Some musings of cross country travel…

You can trace the rise of the interstates by the style of the closed up gas stations. 40 miles east of here the interstate opened in 1959 and the gas station closest to it on the old route is an old 2 bay "service station" with car lifts in it and the pneumatic bell on the wall that dinged when you drove over it. No canopy over it because it was full service and the poor bastiages pumping gas were actual men and there were only 2 pumps. It was at a major north/south, east/west intersection but off the interstate by a few miles and there wasn't an exit at that interchange so it was cut off from the vast majority of traffic.

Just north of here the interstate didn't come through until the 80's and the closed gas station probably started like the previous one but was remodeled in the 70's and the service bays were gone and they put a canopy over the 4 islands with 8 pumps for those motorists who may melt while pumping their own. It was abandoned because it fell between 2 exits on the interstate and new gas stations were built at the exits on either side of it.

It didn't happen all at once from a cataclysm of some sort, but over 5 decades as the interstates bypassed them. I am sure there is a modern 40 pumper out there that was cut off by a spur opened in the last few years that is now falling into disrepair for the same reason.