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 Now largely superseded by the Interstate Highway system, Route 66 still looms large in American history and mythology.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)

Discover more on these topics at Listening to America

New Mexico Thoreau Sports South Carolina Rivers Republic North Dakota Pennsylvania Ohio Utah William Shirer New England The Constitution Oregon Steinbeck Travels north daktoa paintings Texas Walden Travel Theodore Roosevelt Thomas Jefferson Wisconsin Podcast New York Road Trips Water in the West Washington Oppenheim Space Exploration Video U.S. Presidents New Engalnd Reading Virginia Vermont Poetry Republics Rome Tennessee Wyoming South Dakota State Parks Oppenheimer North Carolina
Tagged under: , , ,