Chicago, Launch Point for Historic Route 66 — Video Dispatch

/ / Published in Dispatches from the Road
Clay visits the eastern takeoff point for historic Route 66 in downtown Chicago. Begun in 1926, when the Bureau of Public Roads began the nation’s first federal highway system, Route 66 winds some 2,400 miles from the shores of Lake Michigan, eventually reaching Los Angeles, California. Now largely superseded by the Interstate Highway system, Route 66 still looms large in American history and mythology.

Historic Route 66

USA map showing Route 66
Beginning in the east in Illinois, Route 66 winds through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, eventually reaching California. Route 66 was cobbled together from existing local, state, and national roads. The highway quickly became a popular route, advertised as “the shortest, best and most scenic route from Chicago through St. Louis to Los Angeles.” (NPS- Wikimedia)

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