Cyrus Avery had a plan. In the early 1920s, public pressure in the U.S. was high to create a national highway system. People were tired of the confused network of unmapped and sometimes impassable county roads snaking across the nation. During a committee meeting on the topic, Avery, an Oklahoma businessman, touted the potential of a route that would start in Chicago, drop south through Oklahoma, then turn west through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and end in Los Angeles.

The road would not follow a traditionally linear course, as with the Dixie and Lincoln Highways of its time. Instead it would be a diagonal course across the nation, linking hundreds of rural communities and encouraging population expansion to the West. Avery also had an idea for this road's official number: Double-Sixes. Thus, Avery was the "father" of the so-called "Mother Road" - Route 66.

Route 66 helped facilitate the single greatest wartime mobilization in U.S. history, prompting many to proclaim it as the deciding factor during World War II.

Later nicknamed "The Main Street of America," Route 66 offered a 2,448-mile-long route between Chicago and Los Angeles. Though only 800 miles of the highway were paved in 1926, during the Great Depression, thousands of unemployed men were signed on to fully pave the roadway from end to end.

As the nation grew, so did the importance of Route 66. The roadway helped facilitate the single greatest wartime mobilization in U.S. history, prompting many to proclaim Route 66 as the deciding factor during World War II. The famous highway inspired songs, books and even a 1960s television series appropriately named "Route 66." Under the Eisenhower administration, the Federal Highway Act of 1956 was passed and the success of Route 66 could be seen as the catalyst.