Pan-American Highway
| Pan–American Highway | |
|---|---|
The Pan-American Highway from Prudhoe Bay, United States, to Quellón, Chile, and Ushuaia, Argentina, with official and unofficial routes shown in Mexico and Central and South America. A few selected unofficial routes are shown through the United States and Canada as they existed in the early 1960s. In 1966, the new U.S. Interstate Highway System brought official status to most previously unofficial routes in the contiguous United States. | |
| North American segment | |
| North end | Prudhoe Bay, United States |
| South end | Yaviza, Panama |
| South American segment | |
| North end | Turbo, Colombia |
| South end | Ushuaia, Argentina |
| Location | |
| Countries | North America: United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama South America: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina |
| Highway system | |
| Pan-American Highway system | |
The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads that stretches about 19,000 miles (about 30,000 kilometers) 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. (except for Alaska) 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.