Pan-American Highway


The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads that stretches about 19,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, United States, in the northernmost part of North America to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of South America. It is recognized as the longest road in the world. The highway connects 14 countries: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina.
No road in the U.S. or Canada is officially designated as part of the Pan-American Highway, which officially begins at the U.S.-Mexico border in Nuevo Laredo and runs south.
The Pan-American Highway is interrupted at the Darién Gap, a roadless, dense rainforest area between Panama and Colombia. No road traverses the Gap, and no car ferries have operated in the area for decades; drivers often opt to send their car by cargo ship from one country to the other. This means North and South America are separated.

Concept of the highway

The highway was built in stages. The first, not long after one could drive across the United States on a paved road, was the highway from Laredo, Texas to Mexico City. The second stage was the Inter-American Highway to Panama City; previously there were no roads, and little commerce between most Central American countries. There was no road between Costa Rica and Panama until, concerned about access to the Panama Canal in a war situation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a highway in 1941.
The third stage, which has not been completed and may never be, continues onward to the southern tip of South America at Tierra del Fuego National Park, near Ushuaia, Argentina. Both Panama and Colombia, as well as environmentalists, are opposed to building a highway through the Darién Gap that separates the two continents.
A Cuban proposal that was not carried out was to include a "circuito del Caribe". This would have expanded the highway to Puerto Juárez, Mexico, and from there by ferry to Pinar del Río, Cuba, from there by road to Havana, and by ferry again to Key West, Florida, and the Overseas Highway. The deterioration of relations between Cuba and the U.S. after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 ended talk of this project.

Development and construction

The concept of an overland route from one tip of the Americas to the other was originally proposed as a railroad. In 1884 the U.S. Congress passed a law with a plan to build an inter-American rail system. This was discussed at the First Pan-American Conference in 1889; however, construction never started. It was abandoned in concept after the independence of Panama in 1903, when work on the canal began.
The concept of building a highway, rather than a railroad, emerged at the Fifth International Conference of American States in 1923, after the automobile and other vehicles had begun to replace railroads for both passenger and goods transportation. The first conference regarding the construction of the highway opened in Buenos Aires on October 3, 1925.
Finally, on July 29, 1937, in the latter years of the Great Depression, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Canada, and the United States signed the Convention on the Pan-American Highway, whereby they agreed to achieve speedy construction, by all adequate means. Thirteen years later, in 1950, Mexico became the first Latin American country to complete its portion of the highway.
No single route in the United States has been designated, much less marked, as the U.S. portion of the Pan-American Highway. However, I-25 is labeled as the Pan-American freeway in states such as New Mexico and Colorado. According to the federal Department of Transportation, the Interstate Highway System is the United States' section of the highway. In Canada the highway is not marked. Much of the highway in Latin America is marked as Vía Panam or Vía Panamericana.

Countries served

The Northern Pan-American Highway travels through 14 countries, including in Central America:
  • Canada
  • United States
  • Mexico
  • Guatemala
  • El Salvador
  • Honduras
  • Nicaragua
  • Costa Rica
  • Panama
The Southern Pan-American Highway travels through five countries:
  • Colombia
  • Ecuador
  • Peru
  • Chile
  • Argentina
Important spurs also connect with four other South American countries:
  • Bolivia
  • Brazil
  • Paraguay
  • Uruguay

    Northern section

Alaska

The Alaska Highway through Alaska, Yukon and British Columbia is commonly considered a de facto northerly extension of the Pan-American Highway, which continues further north with the Dalton Highway in Alaska. With this route, the Pan-American Highway begins in Prudhoe Bay, near Deadhorse. Traveling south, the route follows the length of the Dalton Highway changing to Alaska Route 2, the Alaskan portion of the Alaska Highway, near Fairbanks, Alaska. From Fairbanks, the route follows Alaska Route 2 southeast to the Canada–United States border southeast of Northway, Alaska, and adjacent to the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.

Canada

In Canada, no particular road has been officially designated as the Pan-American Highway. The National Highway System, which includes but is not limited to the Trans-Canada Highway, is the country's only official inter-provincial highway system. However, several Canadian highways are a natural extension of several key American highways that reach the Canada–US border. British Columbia Highway 97 and Highway 2 to Alberta both pick up where the southern end of the Alaska highway leaves off. Highway 97 becomes U.S. Route 97 at the Canada–US border. British Columbia Highway 99 provides an alternate route from Highway 97 just north of Cache Creek; it runs through Whistler and Vancouver before ending at the Canada–US border at the north end of Interstate 5 in Washington state, the beginning of the official Pan-American route south of British Columbia. Meanwhile, Alberta Highway 2 runs south and east to Alberta Highway 3 leading into Lethbridge, then south on Alberta Highway 4 to the Canada–US border, where it becomes Interstate 15 in Montana. This is the first official stretch of the Pan-American Highway south of the Alberta route, both of which are also part of the CANAMEX Corridor.

Yukon

Crossing the border into Canada, Alaska Highway 2 turns into Yukon Highway 1. The first significant settlement along the way is Beaver Creek, Yukon. At Haines Junction, where it meets Yukon Highway 3, Yukon Highway 1 turns east toward Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory.
Through most of Whitehorse, Yukon Highway 2 and Yukon Highway 1 share an alignment. Yukon Highway 1 cuts southeast toward Marsh Lake, Yukon while Yukon Highway 2 cuts south to Skagway, Alaska. Eventually, Yukon Highway 1 intersects with Yukon Highway 8 and Yukon Highway 7 at Jake's Corner, Yukon; the Pan-American Highway continues on Yukon 1 east-northeast from this junction.
At Johnson's Crossing, Yukon Highway 1 meets Yukon Highway 6 and travels southeast through Teslin, Yukon. The Pan-American Highway continues on Yukon 1 as it crosses over into British Columbia. After several miles, the Highway reenters the Yukon and continues southeast of Watson Lake until it, once again, enters British Columbia as B.C. Highway 97.

British Columbia

After travelling about past the British Columbia–Yukon border, the Pan-American Highway reaches the first settlement in British Columbia at Lower Post. After travelling about east, the highway once again re-enters the Yukon for roughly. The Highway then re-enters British Columbia for the final time. The Pan-American Highway continues south to southeast through a long uninhabited stretch until it passes through the villages of Fireside and Coal River, then runs east parallel to the Liard River.
The Pan-American Highway continues on B.C. Highway 97 as it passes through Toad River Post, and then Summit Lake, which is nested between Stone Mountain and Mount Saint George. Further down the road, B.C. Highway 97 intersects with B.C. Highway 77; the Pan-American Highway continues along B.C. 97 east to Fort Nelson.
From Fort Nelson, the Highway travels south for about until it reaches Fort St. John. It continues on B.C. Highway 97 southeast for another to reach the end of the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek.

Alberta

After B.C Highway 97, the unofficial route becomes Alberta Highway 43. In approximately, Highway 43 enters into the first settlement, Demmitt. For about, Highway 43 goes into Grande Prairie. At Clairmont, Highway 43, turns to Alberta Highway 2, Highway 43 goes left. Highway 43 goes for before reaching Edmonton. The unofficial route turns two ways, one way goes to Lloydminster, Minneapolis, and Dallas and merges with the second way. The second way goes to Calgary and the US border.

Contiguous United States

In 1966, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration designated the entire Interstate Highway System as part of the Pan-American Highway System, but this has not been expressed in any of the official interstate signage. Of the many freeways that make up this comprehensive system, several are notable because of their mainly north–south orientation and their links to the main Mexican route and its spurs, as well as to key routes in Canada that link to the Alaska Highway.
These include the following:
  • Interstate 5 runs north from San Diego, California, to Blaine, Washington, then links indirectly with British Columbia Highway 99 north of the Canada–US border. A technically direct link between the same interstate and the U.S. Route 97 system can be found near Weed, California. US Route 97 runs northeast then north through Oregon and Washington from this junction, and becomes BC Highway 97 at the border with Canada.
  • Interstate 15 links San Diego with Alberta Highway 2 that eventually crosses into British Columbia and ends at the southern terminus of the Alaska Highway. Interstate 8 provides an east–west link from San Diego to Interstate 10 near Phoenix, Arizona. The latter continues to Tucson and links with Interstate 19, which becomes a spur of the Pan-American highway through Mexico at the Nogales border crossing.
  • Interstate 25 runs north from Interstate 10 at Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Interstate 90 in Buffalo, Wyoming. This route has no direct extension into Canada but links indirectly to Interstate 15. Interstate 25 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was named the Pan-American Freeway, as an extension of Highway 45, the Mexican spur linking El Paso to the original route along highway 85 north of Mexico City. This portion of I-25 largely follows the historic Camino Real, and thus serves a culturally significant portion of the Pan American system. Like I-15, the complete route of Interstate 25 is an official northerly continuation toward Alberta, where Highway 2 provides a direct but unofficial Canadian link to the Alaska Highway.
  • Interstate 35 is a northerly continuation of the original Pan-American highway following Mexican Federal Highway 85. It extends from Laredo, Texas to the Canada–United States border north of Duluth, Minnesota, with a spur, Interstate 29, that leads farther west toward Winnipeg, Manitoba. The section of Interstate 35 in San Antonio, Texas, is referred to as the Pan Am Expressway by locals. I-35 is a northerly continuation of Mexico Highway 85, the original official Mexican route, ending in Duluth, Minnesota, where Minnesota State Highway 61 continues to the Canada–US border near Thunder Bay, Ontario. This route was first proposed in a 1932 bill introduced in the U.S. Congress. The Trans-Canada Highway provides a link from Winnipeg and Thunder Bay to Alberta and the Alaska Highway, but it is not officially part of the Pan-American Highway.
  • U.S. Route 81 is claimed to be part of the Pan American Highway from Wichita, Kansas, to Watertown, South Dakota, where it runs separately from Interstate 29.
  • An additional route only partially complete is Interstate 69, which will eventually run northeasterly from the Laredo Nuevo Laredo border crossing to the Windsor-Quebec City Corridor in Canada, where the route becomes unofficial.