Before the US Airways merger these were a trunk route workhorse - DFW and ORD seemed to get a lot of MD-80s and 737s from LGA/BOS, but MIA (and obviously the west coast destinations) were always 757s. Same for most of the ski destinations from DFW - many a fond holiday memory.

I've never had the experience of 2L boarding on AA - the domestic configured ones for the longest time had a pair of seats in front of 2L which I suppose would have made it awkward for boarding (which US, UA and DL configs omitted). I was more of a US Airways flyer then - post-9/11 the 757s went from 24F to 8F (which were mixed in with 14F America West 757s after the merger and I don't believe ever standardized before being retired). Many of the older US and HP 757s started life at launch customer Eastern.