Route 66 marks 100 years as America’s mother road
Route 66 turns 100 as states spend millions to pull travelers back, even as preservationists warn that landmarks and stories are still disappearing.
Illinois opened the Route 66 centennial year in Granite City with nearly $4 million in grants for development, preservation, education and promotion. The Mother Road, first assembled in 1926 when the Bureau of Public Roads launched the nation’s first federal highway system, stretches about 2,400 miles across eight states from Chicago to Los Angeles.
The road was cobbled together from existing local, state and national routes, and the U.S. 66 Highway Association sold it as “the shortest, best and most scenic route from Chicago through St. Louis to Los Angeles.” Its original alignment measured 2,448 miles. By 1985, Route 66 had been decommissioned as a federal highway, even as its name and image remained woven into American travel culture.
Congress created the 15-member Route 66 Centennial Commission through Public Law 116-256, signed by President Donald Trump on Dec. 23, 2020, to recommend activities for the centennial in 2026. Caravans, monuments and road-trip campaigns have aimed to reconnect travelers, businesses and communities to a highway that once drew drivers looking to “get their kicks.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation created Route 66 REMAP for the centennial, and its interactive map documents more than 3,000 historic Route 66 postcards. Historic places and stories along the road continue to be lost, and many of the motels, diners and service stations built for passing motorists have already been bypassed, demolished or left to fade in place.
Illinois welcomed 113 million visitors in 2024 who spent a record $48.5 billion statewide, and hotel tax revenues reached a record $367 million in fiscal year 2025.
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