U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. [3]

Feb 15, 2025 · Route 66, one of the first national highways for motor vehicles in the United States and one that became an icon in American popular culture. The Main Street of America Highway-marker sign once used along Route 66, which was being …

Route 66 was one of the United States' first continuous stretches of paved highway, and served as a major path for those who migrated to the West. "The Mother Road" was established on November 11, 1926, and ultimately stretched 2,448 miles …

Jun 27, 2022 · U.S. Highway 66 — popularly known as Route 66 — embodies a complex, rich history that goes well beyond any chronicle of the road itself. An artery of transportation, an agent of social transformation, and a remnant of America’s past, it stretches 2,400 miles across two-thirds of the continent.

Jun 27, 2022 · The official origin of Route 66 was the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921. A road assessment of a decade earlier estimated the total mileage of rural roads in America at approximately 2.5 million miles, 10.5% of them surfaced.

Starting in Chicago and ending in Los Angeles, “over two thousand miles all the way” in the words of the popular R&B anthem, this legendary old road passes through the heart of the United States on a diagonal trip that takes in some of the country’s most archetypal roadside scenes.

Route 66, which soon became one of the most famous roads in the United States. It originally began in Chicago, Illinois, crossing Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and then concluded in Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, California. It adds up to a total of 2448 miles (about 3940 km).

Route 66 was built on centuries of travel, following Native American and Spanish trails, then the iron and steel grooves of railroad tracks as they cut across the American landscape, passing through the major bioregions of the North American continent.

Sep 9, 2024 · But in the mid-1950s, in the midst of its heyday, Route 66 suffered a major blow when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, creating the Interstate Highway...

Apr 2, 2025 · Route 66 officially opened in 1926 as part of America's first real highway system. It quickly became popular because it was advertised as the shortest and most scenic way to drive west. Small towns along the route saw this as their chance to make money, and soon the road was lined with gas stations, motels, and restaurants.