Like them or loathe them, motorways are some of the most convenient roads to help drivers access a completely different part of the country in the shortest possible time.
Whilst plenty of the fast-moving roads in the UK span hundreds of miles, the world’s longest motorway is no fewer than 30,000 miles long and takes users through a dizzying 14 different countries.
The Pan-American Highway is an international network of roads in South America that begins in southern Argentina and only ends once traffic reaches Alaska.
Split into two parts, the south section of the record-breaking road takes motorists through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia before reaching a 60-mile break towards the north of the country.
Once drivers have reached the northern section of the road in Panama, they will then pass through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, America, and Canada, before returning to the American state of Alaska.
Plans to create the Pan-American Highway were initially proposed to the US Congress in 1884 as a railway line to connect the many countries across the two continents.
Whilst there was a lot of hope for the proposal, which would have aided mass transit, it was eventually abandoned in favour of the Panama Canal in 1903, before being reconsidered as a motorway in 1923.
15 countries signed the agreement to build sections of the highway in 1937, with Mexico completing the first installment of the road in 1950 and the final stretch finished by 1963.
Regarded by the Guinness Book of World Records as the ‘world’s longest motorable road’, drivers who wish to travel the whole distance of the Pan-American Highway should give themselves plenty of time to spare.
Currently, the driver with the record for the shortest time covering the entirety of the road is Tim Cahill, who, alongside professional long-distance motorist Garry Sowerby, completed the 30,000-mile trip in just 24 days.
Motorists who want to travel the whole road at a more reasonable pace are generally advised to allocate around six months, and should also make sure they have all the travel documents and vaccinations required to enter the multitude of countries.
Whilst the Pan-American Highway is head and shoulders above the UK’s longest motorway, the 231-mile-long M6, there is a similar alternative that tourists can travel along in Europe.
The E40 is currently the longest motorway in Europe, covering the 4,971-mile journey between Calais, France and Ridder, Kyrgystan, passing Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan in the process.
A connected journey of different motorways in each country, drivers looking to travel continuously on the E40 will need nearly two months before reaching the end point, near the border with China.
