Route 66, the 2,000-mile stretch of road from Chicago to Santa Monica isn’t just one of America’s oldest and most famous highways – it’s an adventure down memory lane, transporting its visitors to a bygone era of drive-ins and neon signs.
US Route 66, also called the Main Street of America and the Mother Road, was born of a growing and expanding America – those who wanted to migrate west needed a way to get from small, rural towns to larger, urban cities.
In 1926, the government began constructing the national highway from Chicago, IL diagonally to Santa Monica, CA; that summer, the highway was designated number 66, with signs going up the following year.
The road, gaining popularity, helped to support the communities it passed through, with businesses flourishing along its route. Despite the significance of this east-to-west artery, the highway was threatened by the new Interstate Highway System; it was officially removed from the US Highway System in 1985, although portions in Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico and Arizona are designated a National Scenic Byway.
It crosses no fewer than 8 states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California – so planning can be a challenging task.
Route 66 is the quintessential embodiment of the road and all its greatest promises: freedom and serendipity, kitsch and living history, and a case study of the very particular way Americans have moved and multiplied. You can certainly travel eastward on Route 66 but there’s no denying the symbolic strength of at least one westward journey along its patchwork of asphalt.
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