Rout 66 was established on November 11, 1926, The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in the United States, originally ran from Chicago and ending at Santa Monica, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles.
US 66 served as a major path for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and the road supported the economies of the communities through which it passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.
Back in the 1940s, Nat King Cole was already singing about Route 66’s open-road appeal. Today, Route 66 has been decommissioned as a federal highway, but many parts of the 2,400-mile historic roadway still exist—and hold a particular appeal to road-trippers.
