Route 66

Received from: the USA
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: January 2012
Distance: 9683 km
Time of travelling: 10 days

U.S. Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the Main Street of America or the Mother Road or The most famous road in the world) was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in America, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song (written by Bobby Troup, originally recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio in 1946, and later performed by such artists as Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, The Manhattan Transfer and Depeche Mode) and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s.