"...and they come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads, 66 is the mother road, the road of flight." John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Commissioned in 1926, Route 66 was 2448 miles long, crossing three time zones and eight states. From 1926 to 1937, the road went north around the Sandias to Santa Fe and turned south to Albuquerque and on to Valencia County and Los Lunas. When completed and fully paved in 1938, 126 miles had been shaved from the route, by passing Santa Rosa and...HEY!! Santa Fe.
