Route 66 is not the longest or most-travelled American highway. So why is it the most famous?

KGOU WBUR | By Indira Lakshmanan, Will Walkey

May 27, 2026

To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, we’re cataloging 25 objects that define the country’s history.

Long before interstates stitched the country together, there was “The Mother Road.” Route 66 crossed through eight states from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif. It brought customers to gas stations, trading posts and roadside attractions that breathed life into hundreds of small towns across America.

Fully paved in the 1930s, it became a Depression-era migration route for poor farming families fleeing the Dust Bowl for a new start in California. It’s featured in novels like John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” and Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” And it inspired that 1946 song made famous by Nat King Cole: “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.”

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