Williams Historic Downtown

On October 13, 1984, Interstate 40 opened around Williams, and newspapers the next day reported what amounted to the end of US Route 66. The following year, Route 66 was decommissioned. Williams had been the last city on the Mother Road to be bypassed — a distinction earned through years of lawsuits that held off the interstate until settlements finally cleared the way. The Historic Downtown District covers six blocks, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The southern terminus of the Grand Canyon Railway still anchors it.