St. Louis is having a moment as Route 66 marks its 100th birthday this week, with the Gateway Arch, a 97-year-old frozen custard stand, and a sprawling transportation museum all reporting a noticeable uptick in visitors from around the globe. The Mother Road, which stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica and once cut straight through downtown St. Louis, is pulling international travelers to the city's most iconic stops even without a single confirmed visitor count yet on the books.
At 630 feet tall, the Gateway Arch is as tall as it is wide and remains the nation's tallest man-made monument, according to FOX 2. The site has carried several names over the decades: it was originally designated the Jefferson National Memorial Expansion before being renamed Gateway Arch National Park in recent years and formally folded into the national park system. For Sherry Stennis, an East St. Louisan, the Arch grounds have become something closer to a sanctuary than a tourist stop. “I sit here, and this is where I meditate,” she said, adding that she comes to take in the Arch alongside the sky and clouds above it.
Just a few miles away, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard has been serving up its signature concretes since 1929, and the family-owned stand's Chippewa Street location became its prime spot as Route 66 crowds grew and the route itself shifted over the years, per the same FOX 2 report. The business's own site notes the Chippewa shop sits on historic Route 66 and has scooped custard there since 1941, now marking its 97th season. Travelers passing through this time of year can also catch the stand selling Christmas trees and holiday greenery, a tradition that kicks off the day after Thanksgiving.
A Museum Exhibit Built for the Centennial
Across town, the National Museum of Transportation is also seeing a lot of visitors from around the world this year, the station's report notes. Spread across a 42-acre property displaying planes, trains, boats, and automobiles, the museum opened a new exhibit this year called “Roads, River, Rooms, and Reels” specifically to honor the Mother Road's milestone. According to the National Museum of Transportation, the show was slated to open to the public on March 14, 2026.
The exhibit's collection spans vehicles from every decade of Route 66's history, along with neon signs salvaged from businesses that once lined the highway. Its centerpiece is a 26-foot model of the SS Admiral, the riverboat that was moored on the Mississippi River for decades, which the museum says was beautifully restored by the skilled craftsmen of Sheet Metal Workers' Local 36. The museum's materials also spotlight the ’66’ Park-In Theatre on Watson Road, a drive-in once owned by the Wehrenberg family of St. Louis.
A Birthday a Century in the Making
Route 66's official birth date is November 11, 1926, according to the Los Angeles Times. In St. Louis, the historic route once ran straight through downtown, crossing the Mississippi via either the Eads Bridge or the Chain of Rocks Bridge, FOX 2 has reported separately. Gateway Arch National Park has said it anticipates a busier spring and summer travel season as the broader Route 66 Centennial approaches its April 30 milestone.
The centennial bump isn't unique to St. Louis. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum saw business quadruple in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. In Springfield, Missouri, Rockwood Motor Court owner Phyllis Ferguson told the paper she filled 286 of her motel's 300 room-nights in June alone, putting her on the brink of surpassing her entire 2025 total by the end of that single month.
Back along the riverfront, the Gateway Arch continues to anchor the city's Route 66 identity, standing alongside an Art Deco riverboat replica. Whether it's a quiet moment of reflection for a visitor like Stennis or a steady stream of travelers checking a bucket-list stop off their list, St. Louis's stretch of the Mother Road is drawing eyes from well beyond Missouri as the highway's hundredth year winds down.
