Santa Monica, Calif.: John Steinbeck called it the "Mother Road." The Rolling Stones made it a global icon.

On Wednesday, the Santa Monica Pier was officially named the western terminus of historic Route 66.

To mark the event and the 83rd anniversary of the numbered highway system, 66 vintage cars and motorbikes drove in a motorcade to the final western tip of the highway on the Santa Monica pier.

There they unveiled a replica of the long-lost "End of the Trail" sign, with live music, fanfare, city officials and a crowd of Route 66 enthusiasts, residents and tourists.

The highway's original end point in 1926 was at 7th Street and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, according to Glen Duncan, president of the California Route 66 Preservation Foundation. A decade later, the road was extended to Olympic and Lincoln boulevards in Santa Monica.

But the beach, Duncan said, "was the major tourist attraction" for travelers on what Will Rogers called "America's Main Street."

Route 66 was a major path of migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and the road supported the economies of the communities through which it passed.

It's a big year, too, for the Santa Monica Pier, which turned 100 in September and draws more than 4 million visitors annually. There you can even take a class on the art of the flying trapeze or medieval sword combat (courtesy of the Trapeze School of New York).

Below the Pier's eastern deck is the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, where the more unusual denizens of the Santa Monica Bay can be seen at close range. And the pier's carousel, one of the few surviving all-wood carousels in the world, still offers old-fashioned entertainment for less than a dollar.

Check out what's happening and see highlights from the 100 years of pier history at www.santamonicapier.org.