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Route 66 Gets Its Due: Navy Pier Officially Becomes the Mother Road's Starting Point
ABC7 Chicago was out this morning with a report that made this old heart sing a little — Chicago's Navy Pier has officially been designated as the starting point of Route 66 as America's most famous highway marks its 100th anniversary. The Illinois Department of Transportation made it official, placing new signage at the pier to mark what they're calling the true beginning of the Mother Road.
For decades, there's been some back-and-forth about where exactly Route 66 began in Chicago. Signs have popped up at various downtown locations, from Grant Park to Jackson Boulevard, but historians and road enthusiasts have long argued that Navy Pier deserves the honor. The pier sits at the terminus of what was the original eastern endpoint when the highway was commissioned back in 1926. Now, as we mark a full century of this ribbon of asphalt that connected Chicago to Los Angeles, officials are setting the record straight with proper commemorative markers and a small ceremony planned for later this year.
The designation comes as part of broader efforts to celebrate Route 66's centennial throughout 2026. Eight states along the 2,400-mile route are planning various festivities, and there's renewed interest in preserving the remaining original segments of road and the mom-and-pop businesses that still dot the landscape from Illinois to California.
✍ My Take: This takes me right back to 1963, when my father loaded up our Buick Skylark and we drove portions of old 66 on a family vacation to see my uncle in New Mexico. I was just fourteen, nose pressed to the window, watching America unfold mile by mile — the Burma-Shave signs, the motor courts with their neon arrows, the diners where coffee was a dime and the pie was always fresh. Dad would point out landmarks and tell stories about the Dust Bowl families who'd made this same journey decades earlier, heading west with everything they owned strapped to their cars. What strikes me about this news isn't just the historical accuracy — though that matters — it's what Route 66 represents that we seem to have lost somewhere along the way. This was the road that connected not just coasts, but communities. Every small town along the route had its character, its local diner, its family-run gas station where the owner knew your name by your second visit. Before the interstates came through in the '60s and '70s, taking a cross-country trip meant experiencing America at ground level, not racing past it at 75 mph while grabbing fast food at identical exits. I can't help but wonder if this centennial might spark something more than nostalgia tourism. Maybe it's a reminder that the best parts of American life have always happened at a more human pace, in places where strangers still wave from their front porches and the local café serves as the town's unofficial meeting hall. Route 66 wasn't just about getting somewhere fast — it was about the journey itself, and the people you'd meet along the way.
Read the full story at ABC7 Chicago →
Here's to the roads that taught us that sometimes the long way around is exactly the right way to go.
— Jack Reynolds