The Road Survived Its Number
When Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, it was removed from the federal U.S. Highway System—not physically erased. The highway had once linked Chicago and Los Angeles across eight states, but new interstate highways increasingly carried long-distance traffic. As those faster roads took over, the old route lost its role as one continuous, federally designated highway.
Its pavement remained. In many places, former Route 66 became a state or local road, or was bypassed by an interstate. That is why a modern map may show only pieces of the original route, under different road numbers, rather than one uninterrupted line labeled “Route 66.”
Following a Route That No Longer Runs as One
Today’s travelers piece the journey together using surviving stretches, historic markers, and route guides. The road’s changing designations make the trip less like following a single highway and more like tracing its path through towns and landscapes that grew up alongside it. Some sections still carry the old alignment; elsewhere, visitors must leave it or use nearby roads to continue.
That fragmentation is part of what makes the trip tangible: the famous route exists as a connected story, but not as one continuous modern highway. A vintage convertible can follow much of that story, even though the road beneath its tires may now have another name.
