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Route 66 — Santa Monica Blvd
There was a time that you could drive from the Ocean all the way to Chicago, Illinois, or vice-versa. Basically, the starting point of the route 66 is Chicago, and ends at the Ocean at the Santa Monica Pier.
Today, however, the US 66 you are no longer able to drive it uninterrupted all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles. However, with careful planning, the original and alternate routes are still drivable. Some stretches are quite well preserved, including one between Springfield, Missouri, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The reason that US 66 is significant as the nation’s first all-weather highway linking Chicago to Los Angeles. Route 66 reduced the distance between Chicago and Los Angeles by more than 200 miles, which made Route 66 popular among thousands of motorists who drove west in subsequent decades.
Route 66 was significant from 1926 to 1985, as the national system of public highways, prosperity to the disparate regions of the country.
After the road was decommissioned in 1985, federal and state agencies, private organizations, and numerous members of the public realized that remnants of the road were quickly disappearing and that the remaining significant structures, features, and artifacts associated with the road should be preserved. In 1990, the US Congress passed Public Law 101–400, the Route 66 Study Act of 1990.