Route 66 - The mother road - Main street of america

Starting in downtown Chicago, Route 66  headed west out of town and then south through Illinois.  It crossed the Mississippi River at St Louis and continued southwest through Missouri.  A few miles of Route 66 touched the southeast corner of Kansas, then continued toward Oklahoma City before heading a westerly route toward the Pacific coast.  Going west in Oklahoma, it crossed the panhandle of northern Texas, then stretched across New Mexico and Arizona.  Finally it weaved through southern California, ending at Santa Monica about one mile from the Pacific Ocean.

Route 66 was decommisioned in 1985, after the last section was replaced by the interstate highway system.  Remnants of the historic highway closely follow the course of five interstate highways: I-55 between Chicago and St Louis, I-44 from St Louis to Oklahoma City, I-40 from Oklahoma City to Barstow CA, I-15 from Barstow to San Bernardino, and I-10 through Los Angeles.  So, you can roughly follow the course of Route 66 on these present highways, but would I do so only if I was driving from Chicago to California in the least amount of time without consideration of the "Main Street of America."  Don't miss the opportunity to drive through the remaining towns along historic Route 66.  While the National Park Service is committed to preserving the Route 66 corridor, small businesses, neon signs, and towns themselves are disappearing.  

This page remains underconstruction.