Santa Monica Pier

The road ends at the ocean, which is the only honest way for it to end. Route 66 came into California at Needles and crossed the whole Mojave to get here, and the pier, which opened in 1909, is where nearly everyone stops the car and walks out over the water. The End of the Trail sign is a few steps past the arcade, and it is the photograph the entire drive has been pointed at. It is also not the official end, and the guide may as well say so. Route 66 originally stopped in downtown Los Angeles at Seventh and Broadway. On January 1, 1936 it was extended west to the corner of Lincoln and Olympic, about a mile inland, where it met the highways that became the Pacific Coast Highway; federal rules required a route to connect to another route rather than simply stop, so the Mother Road never reached the sand. The pier sign went up in November 2009, during the pier's centennial, a revival of a marker that had stood nearby decades earlier, put there by people who understood that a road needs a finish line and a highway junction is a poor one. The city has since signed the real terminus at Lincoln and Olympic, and both are worth the five minutes. Stand at the rail, and the country is behind you.