Abstract
THE Inter-American Highway from Alaska and Canada in the north to Chile, the Argentine and Brazil in the south, is now, according to an article in Roads and Road Construction of February, having its gaps filled in on the maps and plans of engineers. At present, 4,500 miles of its length are passable by motor-cars in all weathers. The finished sections are in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Panama, and parts of all-weather roads are completed in Alaska, Costa Rica, Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia and Brazil. Highways passable in dry weather cover the greater part of the international highway route. The South American portion of the highway offers a great variety of scenery. There are the jungles of Colombia and Brazil, the sea coasts of Peru and Chile, the magnificent heights of the Andes and the broad expanse of the Argentine pampas. A thousand miles of this highway will be at elevations of 5,000–10,000 ft. The international project is to open up a through route for the highway tourist between North and South America. It will be of special value to citizens of the United States living in the Panama zone. The 250 miles of improved road in Panama have already been largely patronised by the residents of the Canal Zone for recreational travel, and a through highway to the north would be very attractive to them. The Central American section makes it possible to open up large areas for agri cultural and commercial development and so promote their economic welfare. At present, access is mainly by steamer to the ports and thence by rail, highway or aeroplane. Pan-American Airways provides a service throughout the length of Central America, paralleling the future line of the Inter-American Highway on the Pacific slope of the divide.
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The World's Greatest Highway. Nature 136, 137 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136137a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136137a0