The Pan-American Highway is the world’s longest “motorable road”. It also holds a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Started as a single route in 1923, this road grew into a number of designated highways in participating countries, and has now become a network of highways between North America and South America. From Alaska and Canada to Chile, Brazil, and the southern tip of Argentina, this vast network is nearly 30,600 km long. The Inter-American Highway, which extends from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to Panama City (5,390 km), is a part of it.
In 1937, Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and the United States signed the Convention on the Pan-American Highway, by which all of them came together for the quick construction of their respective sections of the highway. The Mexican section, which was the first Latin American section to be completed, was carried out completely by Mexico. However, the U.S. had to provide assistance to build the sections through many of the Central American countries.
The Pan-American Highway is almost continuous, except at the Darien Gap, which is the overland route between Panama and Colombia. This route is about a 100 kilometres. The Darien Gap consists of environmentally sensitive rainforests and marshlands and are inhabited by indigenous people, who have always opposed any plans to continue the construction of the highway in this region. People who want to cover this length of the Americas on the Pan-American Highway generally travel the gap by boat or plane.
Picture Credit : Google