In the 1920s, as America became an automobile nation and demand grew for paved roads, Route 66 emerged from a federally supported highway network as a more than 2,400-mile route from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, officially established in 1926 and known as "The Main Street of America." Considered the primary path between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Coast, it was championed by Oklahoma highway commissioner Cy Avery, and in Illinois it grew from the two-lane SB14, which followed the old Pontiac Trail from Chicago to St. Louis. As traffic increased, the route's starting point shifted from Cicero to Michigan Avenue and Jackson Boulevard in Chicago. Ogden Avenue, long a major transportation corridor paralleling the south branch of the Chicago River and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad tracks, flourished during the Route 66 era, when from the 1920s through the 1950s dozens of garages, tire suppliers, and automobile dealers lined the street. The rise of the interstate highway system under President Dwight D. Eisenhower led to Route 66's decommissioning and the decline of many Ogden Avenue businesses; construction of Interstate 55 began in the 1960s, and in 1977 the "End of Route 66" signs on Jackson Boulevard were removed, though some remaining businesses still preserve Route 66 memorabilia.
