Perhaps no other highway in the U.S. is as fabled as Route 66. It has been immortalized in song, literature, and even a T.V. series as the Main Street of America. Automobiles came early to the desert, following the railroad with its valuable water resources. In the early 1900's the route was known as the National Old Trails Road. In 1926 it became U.S. Highway 66, and within a decade was paved all the way from L.A. to Chicago. Heavy travel by dustbowl emigrants led John Steinbeck to label it as the Mother Road. It was bypassed by Interstate 40 in 1973, and the Route 66 designation was officially dropped in 1985.