Route 66 Begin Sign

Your Route 66 adventure begins here, or ends here if you are driving west to east. The current "End Historic Illinois U.S. Route 66" markers are located on Jackson (eastbound) and the "Start Historic Illinois U.S. Route 66" markers are on Adams (westbound) at Michigan Avenue, in the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District, in recognition of the original eastern terminus of US 66 at Michigan and Jackson. The historic eastern terminus is marked by the southwest corner of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Fountain of the Great Lakes in the Art Institute's South Garden along Michigan Avenue; both the museum and the fountain were already there long before the route's inauguration at that intersection in November 1926 and remain there today.