Pan-American Highway

"Panamericana" redirects here. For the film, see Panamericana (film).
Not to be confused with CANAMEX Corridor.
The Pan-American Highway from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Quellón, Chile, and Ushuaia, Argentina, with official and unofficial routes shown in Mexico and Central and South America. A few selected unofficial routes 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 lower 48 states.

The Pan-American Highway[a] is a network of roads stretching across the Americas, measuring about 30,000 kilometres (19,000 mi)[1] in total length. Except for a break of about 100 km (60 mi) across the border between Colombia and Panama known as the Darién Gap, the roads link most of the Pacific coastal countries of North America and South America in a connected highway system. According to Guinness World Records, the Pan-American Highway is the world's longest "motorable road".

The Pan-American Highway passes through many diverse climates and ecological types—ranging from dense jungles to arid deserts and barren tundra. Some areas are fully passable only during the dry season. There is no official authority for its composition, but it extends in de facto terms from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in the north, to the southern cities of Puerto Montt and Quellón in Chile, and Ushuaia in Argentina.


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  1. ^ "A Gap in the Andes: Image of the Day". earthobservatory.nasa.gov. April 2, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2017.