Historic Route 66 Facts

• Current maps do not include old Route 66.
• Route 66 is 2448 miles long. (about 4000 km).
• Route 66 was commissioned in 1926, picking up as many as possible bits and pieces of existing road.
• Route 66 crosses 8 states and 3 time zones.
• Route 66 starts in Chicago, and ends in L.A. (Santa Monica).Some people think driving it in the opposite direction is historically wrong, but it's mainly a lot harder as all available documentation goes the "right" way. (Please note that our adventure was not only going the “wrong way” but in OK we deviated off the path for a more direct route back to VA. Did you expect us to follow the norm?)
• In 1926 only 800 miles of Route 66 were paved. Only in 1937 Route 66 got paved end-to-end.
• You can only drive parts of Route 66 these days... it has been replaced by the interstate highways I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15 and I-10, but still a surprisingly high amount of old road is waiting to be found by the more adventurous traveler.
• Route 66 is also know as "The Mother Road", "The Main Street of America" and "The Will Rogers Highway".
• During all of its life, Route 66 continued to evolve, leaving many abandoned stretches of concrete, still waiting to be found by the more adventurous traveler.
• Route 66 was also the title of a TV series playing from 1960 till 1964.
• Cyrus Stevens Avery from Tulsa Oklahoma can be called the father of Route 66
• In 1985 Route 66 was officially decommissioned, but for daily use it was replaced far earlier by the Interstates.
• Beginning in the late 1950s and continuing gradually over the next 25 years, old Route 66 was bypassed section by section as the high-speed Interstate highways were completed. Finally, in 1984, when the last stretch of freeway was finished, Route 66 was officially decommissioned (in 1985); the old route is now designated "Historic Route 66."
  
  For more information visit www.historic66.com (among may other websites)