Route 66, one of the original highways in the US Highway System, was established on November 11, 1926. It became one of the most famous roads in the US, passing through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Also called "The Mother Road," "Main Street of America," and "The Will Rogers Highway," it currently covers 2,448 miles, beginning in Chicago at Grant Park at the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue and ending in Santa Monica, California, at the Santa Monica Pier. Montgomery County, Illinois, has 25 miles of Route 66. Because the road has had many different alignments, its recorded length when it started, 2,400 miles, differs from the current length of the highway. Litchfield includes two of these alignments, the 1930-1940 and the 1940-1977.
