Commissioned on November 11, 1926, US Highway 66 became the first paved cross-country American highway. It was created from a patchwork of existing roads and hundreds of miles of newly paved dirt trails. Upon completion several years later, it stretched 2448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica across Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Prior to its creation, the only feasible cross-country route was the unpaved Lincoln Highway, which stretched from New York City to San Francisco.
