Route 66 became an American icon of romance, freedom, migration, and travel after its creation in 1926 as one of the first numbered U.S. highways, running 2,500 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles. In Illinois, it began in downtown Chicago, passed through suburbs, prairie farmland, and Midwestern towns, and reached its scenic endpoint at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which carried traffic across the Mississippi River from 1936 to 1955 and is now open for walking and biking. The road served people fleeing the Dust Bowl in the 1930s and families seeking adventure in the Southwest and California in the 1950s and 1960s, while diners, cafes, service stations, and roadside attractions became part of its culture. Although U.S. Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, nostalgia sustained its legacy. In the Wilmington region, Route 66 is tied to attractions including the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, the Launching Pad Drive-in and Gemini Giant, the Sinclair Dinosaur, the Mar Theater, the Eagle Hotel, the Polk-a-Dot Drive In, an Art Deco service station, the Ill. Rte. 66 Mining Museum, the Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area, the Two-Cell Jail, and the Historic Streetcar Diner. Wilmington itself, known as The Island City because it stands on an island in the Kankakee River, has long been a river crossing and was once a winter camp of the Potawatomi tribe. In 1834, Thomas Cox used the river's water power for a saw mill and soon platted the town. Route 66 passed through Wilmington from 1926 to 1939. Cox's Mill drew settlers who brought wheat and corn to be ground into flour, and the Eagle Hotel, built in 1836, served both these farmers and stage travelers between Chicago and Pontiac. Wilmington's best-known roadside figure became the Gemini Giant, a 1960s muffler man at the Launching Pad Drive-in holding a rocket ship.