Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Pan-American Highway

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

At the 1923 Pan-American Conference, a proposal was presented to link together all of the countries of the Western Hemisphere. A single road that would run from the shore of the Arctic Ocean all the way down to Terra Del Fuego in Argentina.  Several decades later, the countries in question announced the road's completion, which linked the entire western hemisphere. Sort of…. Learn more about the Pan-American Highway, the world’s longest road, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Darcy Adams Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen A Brief History of New York City https://everything-everywhere.com/a-brief-history-of-new-york-city/   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Search Past Episodes at fathom.fm Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Everything Everywhere is an Airwave Media podcast." or "Everything Everywhere is part of the Airwave Media podcast network Please contact [e-mail] to advertise on Everything Everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the 1923 Pan American Conference, a proposal was presented to link together all of the countries of the Western Hemisphere. A single road that would run from the shore of the Arctic Ocean all the way down to Tir del Fuego in Argentina. Several decades later, the countries in question announced the road's completion which linked together the entire Western Hemisphere. Sort of. Learn more about the Pan American Highway, the world's longest road, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. If you want to understand the origin of the Pan American Highway, all you have to do is look at a map. North and South America run, roughly, north and south. Moreover, the entire region is contiguous and connected by land. And it doesn't take too much of an imagination to consider the idea of a route that would connect together all of those countries. The idea was first proposed with the advent of the railroad. In the 19th century, the United States completed the transcontinental railroad, which connected the Atlantic and Pacific coast.

It was an incredible undertaking and allowed for the rapid transportation of people and goods from one side of the continent to the other. In the late 19th century, the dream of a similar railroad that could connect North, Central, and South America began to be discussed openly. In 1884, the United States Congress passed a resolution supporting the creation of a Pan American Railroad, and it was a talking point at the first Pan American Congress in 1889. One of the earliest proponents of such a railroad was the American President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1901, soon after assuming the role of president, he noted, quote, we may assume that the volume of our trade with South America will soon grow to large proportions. These means are adequate transportation facilities such as steamship lines, railroads, and an Ismian canal,

reciprocal trade relations, participation in the business of banking, and a core of commercial travelers specially equipped for Latin American trade. It is not impossible that, following such development, the magnificent conception of an international railroad connecting the United States with the remotest parts of South America may at last be realized. end quote. The proposed Pan American Railroad was to be part of a larger project which included the Panama Canal, a project that Roosevelt began. In fact, many of the early proponents of such a railway envisioned it as being part of an even larger network that would cross the Bering Strait and travel all the way to Cape Town South Africa. Over 120 years later, this global rail network has never been built and may never be built, but it remains a dream of futurists.

There were many reasons why the Pan American Railroad was never built, money, politics, and technology. The creation of the Panama Canal dramatically lessened the need for a railway when ships could do most of the job. However, the dream of connecting the continents never quite died. The issue re-emerged at the 1923 Pan American Congress, but in a different form. By the 1920s, automobiles had increased in popularity and importance, and more commerce was being shipped by truck. The idea was proposed to create a road connecting the two continents. A conference dedicated to planning such a road was convened in October of 1925. It took 12 years before the nations of the Western Hemisphere finally agreed to the creation of such a road.

On July 29, 1937, 14 countries signed the convention on the Pan American Highway. The countries were, United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. This was totally an American-led project. There really wasn't any other countries that spearheaded the program. And one of the reasons why so many countries, especially in Central America, went along with it, was because the United States would be footing much of the bill. There was shockingly little in the way of road development between many of the countries when the treaty was signed. For example, there were no paved roads connecting Costa Rica and Panama as late as 1941.

It's very difficult to put a date on when or even if the Pan American Highway, was completed. Each country was largely responsible for its own section of road, and the road quality varied dramatically between countries and even within countries. Because each stretch of road is unique, it'll be easiest just to describe the discrete sections of the highway and how it was created. And we might as well start at the northernmost point of the highway, at least unofficially, Prudeau Bay, Alaska. Here I should note that despite the Pan American Highway being the idea of the United States, there is no Pan American Highway route within the United States. You'll not find any official federal signs for the Pan American Highway anywhere in the country,

although you might see some unofficial local signs along the road. The road which goes from the town of Dead Horse on Prudeau Bay to Fairbanks, Alaska is known as the Dalton Highway. It was not part of the Pan American Highway's original plan, and almost nothing is located along the road. It was built in 1974 to support the construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline, which begins at Prudeau Bay. The road is 414 miles or 666 kilometers long, and not all of the road is paved. Once you get to Fairbanks, you reach the next segment of the road, the Alaska Highway, which, oddly enough, is mostly in Canada. The United States built the Alaska Highway with the Canadian government support during World War II to connect Alaska with the continental United States.

The concern was that if the Japanese were to invade Alaska, they could blockade sea routes. By building the highway, it would be possible to relieve and supply Alaska without requiring sea access. The Alaska Highway goes from Fairbanks to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and it's 2,232 kilometers, or 1,387 miles long. The highway was completed in 1942, but civilian use was restricted until 1948. Once you get to Dawson Creek, there really is no official route for the Pan American Highway. You can take multiple paths to get to the point where it officially begins in the road. Mexico. The United States designated its entire interstate highway system to be part of the Pan American Highway in 1966. That being said, there are a couple of routes that are considered

the de facto routes that will get you from Dawson Creek to Nuevo Laredo in Mexico. From Dawson Creek, the de facto route is usually along Highway 43 to Edmonton, Alberta, which is 587 kilometers or 364 miles. From here, there are two routes that most people take. One goes east through Winnipeg to Minneapolis, and from there you take Interstate 35 South to Dallas and then to Laredo, Texas. The western route goes through Calgary, and then to Billings, Montana, Denver, Albuquerque, before heading through West Texas to Laredo. Crossing into Mexico, you finally get on the official, singular, Pan-American Highway route. The stretch from the American border to the bottom of Panama is known as the Inter-American Highway.

The Mexican segment was actually one of the first segments which was completed in 1950. It connects Nuevo Laredo, Monterey, Mexico City, and then ends near the Guatemalan town of Malacatan. The Central American component was originally built by the United States in World War II for the same reason the Alaskan Highway was built. The United States wanted a land route to the Panama Canal in case it would be attacked by sea. The highway stays along the Pacific coast side of Central America passing through southern Guatemala, El Salvador, a small part of southern Honduras, western Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and then Panama. The distance from Nuevo Laredo to Panama City is 4,191 kilometers or 2,604 miles. From there, it goes a short distance to the town of Yevisa, Panama. Now in South America, the road begins in TurboColumbia and then head south.

It goes 6,680 kilometers, mostly hugging the Pacific coast and going through Cali, Columbia, Kito, Ecuador, Lima, Peru, and then through the Atacama Desert to Valparaiso, Chile. From here, the road takes a 90-degree turn and heads east across and under the Andes Mountains to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is where the Pan American Highway officially ends. However, just as with the segment in Alaska, it unofficially extends even further south. You can travel another 3,079 kilometers, or 1,913 miles to the world's southernmost town of Ushaya, Argentina. You do have to take a ferry to get to Ila Grande de Tierra del Fuego when you do have to cut back briefly into Chile. The total distance, depending on the route you take, is approximately 30,000 kilometers or 19,000 miles, from dead horse to Eishaya. If you were to drive, you could probably do it under a month if you didn't stop to see anything.

The record time is 10 days, 19 hours. Now, if you happen to be familiar with this road, or paid very close attention to what I was saying, you might have noticed a gap in my description of the road. That's because there is a gap in the road. It's not big, but it's there. And it's known as the Darian Gap, and it's in southern Panama in northwest Colombia. The Daryon Gap is only 106 kilometers or 66 miles, which is pretty small considering the total distance of the highway. If you want to get around the Daryon Gap, your only real choice is to go by sea, and the highway on either end of the gap does not have a port. The problem with the Daryan Gap is that the land on either side of the border is mostly swamps and marshes. Any construction through this

region would be extremely difficult and expensive. That being said, the gap has been crossed, mostly on foot, but in 1986 it was crossed by car. However, it took them 741 days, or over two years, to travel just 200 kilometers or 124 miles. That means they averaged only 1.6 miles per day, or less than the distance of one lap around a running track. The fact that there's no road doesn't mean that plans haven't been made. In the 1970s, the United States funded planning by the government of Panama to close the gap, but it was eventually halted due to environmental concerns. The local Embrow-Wonan people, who are semi-nomadic,

have also objected to the creation of a road in the region as it would destroy the lands they use for food. But perhaps the biggest reason why the dairy and gap hasn't been closed is probably due to foot-and-mouth disease. Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly infectious disease that affects cattle. The Darien Gap has been the effectual barrier to this disease, which occurs in South America, but it hasn't been seen in North or Central America in almost 70 years. Currently, there are no serious plans for bridging the gap, and the only solution which might be implemented would be regular ferry service between Panama and Columbia. One other segment to the highway was proposed but never built, the West Indies or Cuban section.

The original plan was to have the highway split in Mexico and have one branch lead up to the Yucatan Peninsula. From there, ferry service would connect the 128 miles from Mexico to Cuba, and then Cuba would be connected to Key West Florida by ferry, closing the loop. The Cuban government, at the time the highway was proposed, was really behind this idea, and they were probably the biggest supporters of the project behind the United States. However, the plan was abandoned after the Cuban revolution in 1959, and it's never been revived. While the Pan American Highway has been dubbed the world's longest road, it is entirely possible that an even longer road could be built connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe. Most of it already exists in bits

and pieces, and such a road would really be more of an issue of politics than engineering. The Pan American Highway probably never really achieved its potential. Container shipping by sea has become incredibly cheap, mostly eliminating the need to transport goods by land, especially over such long distances. Politics and border crossings also make long-distance land transportation difficult, and of course there's the Dary and gap. Nonetheless, the Pan-American Highway is an impressive project, and it's a testament not only to engineering, but to intergovernmental cooperation. Everything Everywhere Daily is an airwave media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett.

Today's view comes from listener RMS Rambo over at Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, Can't Get Enough. From the first episode I listened to, Everything is Made of Adams, I was hooked. I love the spectrum of topics and quick concise information. I've already gotten three other people hooked and will continue to spread the good word. I can't wait till I catch up so I can relisten to my favorites. I would love to know more about the purchase of Manhattan and early New York City. Keep up your endlessly intriguing work. Thank you. Well, thank you, RMS Rambo. I don't know if you've gone back through the previous episodes, but I actually did an episode on the history of New York City where I touched on those topics. And if you're interested,

I actually put a link to that episode in the show notes for this episode. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram. You two can have it right on the show.