What is the Pan-American Highway?
Also known as the ‘ice-to-ice’ route, the Pan-American Highway begins in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and ends in Ushuaia, Argentina. It’s approximately 23,000km long, with 183,000m elevation. It spans two continents and 14 countries (Canada, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina).
The route was proposed as a railroad in the late 1800s, pivoting to a series of highways in the early-to-mid 1900’s largely in part to the rise in automobiles and the shift towards construction of highways.
Although the highway was meant to be continuous, there is one significant break in the road: The Darién Gap. A 100km wide dense rainforest on the border of Panama and Colombia. Here, it’s advisable to either fly or sail to Colombia. It’s worth noting many migrants use this roadless area while making their way north, if no other port of entry is available to them.
If you’d like to read more about the Darién Gap, these are some great resources:
Wikipedia image