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Historical landmark

First Route 66 Sign in Illinois

66 E Adams St, Chicago, IL 60603, USA

Roadside marker at the westbound starting point of a coast-to-coast highway born from a bureaucratic numbering dispute.

This guide to the First Route 66 Sign in Illinois opens with a question: who scratched out the number sixty and wrote sixty-six in its place on a 1926 highway chart? It follows Tulsa businessman Cyrus Avery and Springfield promoter John Woodruff as they push for a round, prestigious number for their new Chicago-to-Los Angeles road, and the Kentucky officials who blocked them. The route's original starting point, a block away on Jackson Boulevard, changed when Chicago made that street one-way in 1955.

Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.