Pan-American Highway

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The Pan American Highway from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina.

The Pan-American Highway (Portuguese: Rodovia / Auto-estrada Pan-americana, Spanish: Autopista / Carretera / Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads measuring about 47,958 kilometres (29,800 mi) in total length.[citation needed] Except for a 159-kilometre (99 mi) rainforest break, called the Darién Gap, the road links the mainland nations of the Americas in a connected highway system. According to Guinness World Records, the Pan-American Highway is the world's longest "motorable road". However, because of the Darién Gap, it is not possible to cross between South America and Central America by traditional motor vehicle.

The Pan-American Highway system is mostly complete and extends from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in North America to the lower reaches of South America. Several highway termini are claimed to exist, including the cities of Puerto Montt and Quellón in Chile and Ushuaia in Argentina. No comprehensive route is officially defined in Canada and the United States, though several highways in the U.S. are called "Pan-American".

The Pan-American Highway passes through many diverse climates and ecological types, from dense jungles, to arid deserts, to cold mountain passes. Since the highway passes through many countries, it is far from uniform. Some stretches of the highway are passable only during the dry season, and in many regions driving is occasionally hazardous.

Famous sections of the Pan-American Highway include the Alaska Highway and the Inter-American Highway (the section between the United States and the Panama Canal). Both of these sections were built during World War II as a means of supply of remote areas without danger of attack by U-boats.[citation needed]

Jake Silverstein, writing in 2006, described the Pan-American Highway as "a system so vast, so incomplete, and so incomprehensible it is not so much a road as it is the idea of Pan-Americanism itself".[1]

Contents

Pan-American Highway system overview[edit]

Map of the Alaska Highway portion (in red) of the Pan-American Highway system.

The Northern Pan-American Highway travels through 9 countries:

The Southern Pan-American Highway travels through 9 countries:

Important spurs also lead into Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay:

The Pan-American Highway goes north out of Mexico into the United States at Laredo, Texas. From there, no official route exists between there and Prudhoe Bay. Stretches of road lay claim to the Pan-American Highway in Canada and the United States. Interstate 35 is named Pan American Expressway through San Antonio, Texas. The Pan American Highway Association claims U.S. Route 81 from McPherson, Kansas to Watertown, South Dakota. The Alaska Highway through Alaska, the Yukon and northern British Columbia also claims to be part of the Pan-American Highway, as well as the Dalton Highway in Alaska, which is the only year-round road in North America to reach the Arctic Ocean (the ice road from Inuvik also reaches the Arctic Ocean).

Darién Gap[edit]

Main article: Darién Gap

A notable break in the highway is a section of land located in the Darién Province in Panama and the Colombian border called the Darién Gap. It is an 87-kilometre (54 mi) stretch of rainforest. The gap has been crossed by adventurers on bicycle, motorbike, all-terrain vehicle, and foot, dealing with jungle, swamp, insects, and other hazards.

Many people, groups, indigenous populations, and governments are opposed to completing the Darién portion of the highway. Reasons for opposition include protecting the rain forest, containing the spread of tropical diseases, protecting the livelihood of indigenous peoples in the area, preventing drug trafficking and its associated violence, and preventing foot and mouth disease from entering North America.[2] The extension of the highway as far as Yaviza resulted in severe deforestation alongside the highway route within a decade.

One option proposed, in a study by Bio-Pacifico, is a short ferry link from Colombia to a new ferry port in Panama, with an extension of the existing Panama highway that would complete the highway without violating these environmental concerns.

Development and completion[edit]

The concept of a route from one tip of the Americas to the other was originally proposed at the First Pan-American Conference in 1889 as a railroad; however, nothing ever came of this proposal. The idea of the Pan-American Highway emerged at the Fifth International Conference of American States in 1923, where it was originally conceived as a single route. On 29 July 1937, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and the United States signed the Convention on the Pan-American Highway, whereby they agreed to begin construction.[3] The first Pan-American highway conference convened October 5, 1925 in Buenos Aires. Mexico was the first Latin American country to complete its portion of the highway, in 1950.[1]

Northern section of the Pan-American Highway[edit]

1933 map of the Inter-American Highway portion of the Pan-American Highway.
Pan-American Highway in Guatemala, 2001.
Main article: Pan-American Highway (North America)

No single road in the U.S. or Canada has been officially or unofficially designated as the Pan-American Highway. In 1966, the Federal Highway Administration designated the entire Interstate Highway System as part of the Pan-American Highway System.[4][5]

Thus the primary road officially starts at the U.S.-Mexico border. The original route began at the border at Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas (opposite Laredo, Texas) and went south through Mexico City. Later branches were built to the border at Nogales, Sonora (Nogales, Arizona); Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua (El Paso, Texas); Piedras Negras, Coahuila (Eagle Pass, Texas); Reynosa, Tamaulipas (McAllen, Texas); and Matamoros, Tamaulipas (Brownsville, Texas).

On the other hand, several roads in the U.S. were locally named after the Pan-American Highway. When the section of Interstate 35 in San Antonio, Texas was built, it was named the Pan Am Expressway, as an extension of the original route from Laredo.[citation needed] Interstate 25 in Albuquerque, New Mexico has been named the Pan-American Freeway,[6]:248 as an extension of the route to El Paso.[citation needed] U.S. Route 85, which goes north from El Paso, is designated the CanAm Highway, which continues into Canada in the province of Saskatchewan, before terminating at La Ronge. The CANAMEX Corridor is also similarly designated throughout the western United States, and continuing into the Canadian province of Alberta. Finally, Interstate 69 from the Canadian Border at Port Huron, Michigan to Indianapolis, Indiana, and its planned extension southward to the Mexican Border at McAllen, Texas has been designated as the NAFTA Superhighway along with Ontario Highway 402 in Canada. When completed, I-69 will connect with an official branch of the Pan-Am Highway at the McAllen-Reynosa border crossing.

Between Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Panama City, Panama, the route is known as the Inter-American Highway, and more specifically, in the Central American countries, it is known as the CA-1 (Central America 1).

Signage in El Salvador displaying the CA-1 (Central America 1) designation (blue sign in the middle). Note the shield is similar to the one used in Chile.

Mexico[edit]

The original route to Laredo travels up Mexican Federal Highway 85 from Mexico City.[citation needed] The various spurs follow:

From Puebla to the border with Guatemala, the highway follows Mexican Federal Highway 190.[7][8][9]

Central America[edit]

It passes through the Central American countries with the highway designation of CA-1 (Central American Highway 1). In Guatemala, it passes through 10 departments, including Guatemala, where it passes through Guatemala City. In El Salvador, it passes through the cities of Santa Ana, Santa Tecla, Antiguo Cuscatlan, San Salvador, San Martin, San Miguel, and crosses the border into Honduras at Amatillo. From Honduras, it passes into Nicaragua, passing though the Nicaraguan cities of Chinandega, León, and Managua, before entering Costa Rica at Peñas Blancas. In Costa Rica, it passes through Liberia, San José, Cartago, Pérez Zeledón, Palmares, Neily, before crossing into Panama at Paso Canoas. In Panama, it crosses the Panama Canal, and ends at Yaviza, Panama at the edge of the Darién Gap. The road had formerly ended at Cañita, Panama, 110 miles (180 km) north of its current end. United States government funding was particularly significant to complete a high-level bridge over the Panama Canal, during the years when the canal was administered by the United States.

Southern section of the Pan-American Highway[edit]

Main article: Pan-American Highway (South America)
A Vía PanAm shield sign is sometimes found on routes in South American countries associated with the Pan-American Highway.
Sculpture of a native man standing at the entrance of Fusagasugá, Colombia over the PanAm Highway
Almost all Pan-American sections in Gran Buenos Aires are modern and fast main highways

The southern part of the highway begins in northwestern Colombia, from where it follows Colombia Highway 62 to Medellín. At Medellín, Colombia Highway 54 leads to Bogotá, but Colombia Highway 25 turns south for a more direct route. Colombia Highway 72 is routed southwest from Bogotá to join Highway 25 at Murillo. Highway 25 continues all the way to the border with Ecuador.

Ecuador Highway 35 runs the whole length of that country. Peru Highway 1 carries the Pan-American Highway all the way through Peru to the border with Chile.

In Chile, the highway follows Chile Highway 5 south to a point north of Santiago (Llaillay), where the highway splits into two parts, one of which goes through Chilean territory to Quellón on Chiloé Island, after which it continues as the Carretera Austral. The other part goes east along Chile Highway 60, which becomes Argentina National Route 7 at the Argentinian border and continues to Buenos Aires, the end of the main highway.[10] The highway network also continues south of Buenos Aires along Argentina National Route 3 towards the city of Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego.

One branch, known as the Simón Bolívar Highway, runs from Bogotá (Colombia) to Guiria (Venezuela). It begins by using Colombia Highway 71 all the way to the border with Venezuela. From there it uses Venezuela Highway 1 to Caracas and Venezuela Highway 9 to its end at Guiria.

A continuation of the Pan-American Highway to the Brazilian cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro uses a ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia in Uruguay and Uruguay Highway 1 to Montevideo. Uruguay Highway 9 and Brazil Highway 471 route to near Pelotas, from where Brazil Highway 116 leads to Brazilian main cities.

Another branch, from Buenos Aires to Asunción in Paraguay, heads out of Buenos Aires on Argentina National Route 9. It switches to Argentina National Route 11 at Rosario, which crosses the border with Paraguay right at Asunción. Other branches probably exist across the center of South America.

The highway does not have official segments to Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, nor to any of the island nations in the Americas. However, highways from Venezuela link to Brazilian Trans-Amazonian highway that provide a southwest entrance to Guyana, route to the coast, and follow a coastal route through Suriname to French Guiana. Belize was supposedly included in the route at one time, as they switched which side of the road they drive on. As British Honduras, they were the only Central American country to drive on the left side of the road.

The West Indies Section[edit]

Plans have been discussed for including the West Indies in the Pan American Highway system. According to these, a system of ferries would be established to connect terminal points of the highway. Travelers would then be able to ferry from Key West to Havana, drive to the eastern tip of Cuba, ferry to Haiti, drive through Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and ferry again to Puerto Rico. Included in this system would also be a ferry from the western tip of Cuba to the Yucatán Peninsula. Mexico has already surveyed a route which will run across the Yucatán, Campeche, and Chiapas to San Cristobal de Las Casas, on the Pan American Highway. ("The Pan American Highway System" by Travel Division Pan American Union, Washington D.C. October 1947)

Art and culture[edit]

The Pan-American highway is the subject of a 2006 conceptual art piece, The School of Panamerican Unrest, where Mexican-born artist Pablo Helguera is attempting to drive a portable schoolhouse for the length of the entire route.[citation needed]

The travel writer Tim Cahill wrote a book, Road Fever, about his record-setting 24-day drive from Ushuaia in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay in the U.S. state of Alaska with professional long-distance driver Garry Sowerby, much of their route following the Pan-American Highway.[11]

In the British motoring show Top Gear, the presenters drove on a section of the road in their off-road vehicles in the Bolivian Special.

In 2003, Kevin Sanders, a long-distance rider, broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest traversal of the highway by motorcycle in 34 days.[12]

Photo gallery[edit]

  • The northern end of the Pan-American Highway at Deadhorse, Alaska

  • Car on Pan-American Highway. Shown in front of Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile.

  • Pan-American Highway through San Martin, El Salvador.

  • Another view of the Pan-American Highway in El Salvador.

  • Pan-American Highway in El Salvador between Lourdes and Santa Ana; this flat 1.5km wide straight section can be used as an airstrip and it was used during El Salvador Civil War.

  • Pan-American Highway in Tres Rios, Costa Rica, right before the toll plaza (about 337 more km to go until the Panamanian border).

  • Panamericana - Pan American Highway - in Pichincha, Ecuador, near Cashapamba

  • Panamericana - northern Peru near Pacasmayo

  • Panamericana near Puerto De Lomas, Peru

  • Panamericana in the Atacama Desert northern Chile

See also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Highway Run". Harper's: 70–80. July 2006. 
  2. ^ http://www.gao.gov/products/PSAD-77-154
  3. ^ Text of the Convention.
  4. ^ American Automobile Association, American Motorist, ca. 1974
  5. ^ New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department, State of New Mexico Memorial Designations and Dedications of Highways, Structures and Buildings, 2007, p. 14
  6. ^ Bryan, Howard (1989). Albuquerque Remembered. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0826337821. OCLC 62109913. Retrieved 13 February 2013. 
  7. ^ "Datos Viales de Puebla" (PDF) (in Spanish). Dirección General de Servicios Técnicos, Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes. 2011. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 2012-03-29. 
  8. ^ "Cruce fronterizo vehicular formal: Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, México — La Mesilla, Guatemala" (PDF) (in Spanish). Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 2012-04-06. 
  9. ^ "República de Guatemala - Red Vial con Distancias" (PDF) (in Spanish). Instituto Geografico National (IGN); Ministerio de Comunicaciones Infraestructura y Vivienda (CIV). 2009. Retrieved 2012-04-09. 
  10. ^ "Pan-American Highway - MSN Encarta". Retrieved 2008-09-19. 
  11. ^ Cahill, Tim (1992). Road Fever. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-394-75837-4. 
  12. ^ Walker, Tim (29 September 2005). "How to have a real adventure: Take a train or get on a bike to experience the thrill of travel as it used to be". The Independent (UK). Retrieved 3 August 2010. 

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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