2019 repress! the pan-american highway is a network of roads measuring about 48.000 kilometres (30.000 mi) in total length. except for a rainforest break of approximately 100 km (60 mi), called the darién gap, the road links almost all of the mainland nations of the americas in a connected highway system. according to guinness world records, the pan-american highway is the world s longest -motorable road-. however, because of the darién gap, it is not possible to cross between south america and central america by road. the pan-american highway passes through many diverse climates and ecological types, from dense jungles, to arid deserts, some of which are passable only during the dry season, and in many regions driving is occasionally hazardous. jake silverstein, writing in 2006, described the pan-american highway as -a system so vast, so incomplete, and so incomprehensible it is not so much a road as it is the idea of pan-americanism itself-.
