Route 66 was extended westward from Los Angeles to Santa Monica in 1936.
The highway originally ended in the Los Angeles area, but the extension connected it with the Pacific coast. The new western section ran through Los Angeles toward Santa Monica, where Route 66 met U.S. Route 101 near the ocean.
This change helped make Santa Monica the route’s famous western destination, although the highway’s best-known eastern starting point remained Chicago. The extension also reinforced Route 66’s role as a cross-country road linking the American Midwest with Southern California.
A common mix-up is confusing the 1936 Santa Monica extension with the highway’s creation in 1926. Route 66 was established a decade earlier; Santa Monica became its western terminus later. Today, the Santa Monica endpoint is commemorated near the Santa Monica Pier, even though the original highway no longer exists as a continuous U.S. route.