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History
| US Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926, though signs did not go up until the following year. |
 Midpoint |
| Route
66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime
that changed its overall length. One of these realignments moved
the western endpoint from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s (The Dust Bowl was a series of dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands), and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. |
Construction of US Route 66 |
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 even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.
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| US Route 66 was officially decommissioned (that is, officially removed from the United States Highway System) on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". |
It has begun to return to maps in this form. |
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