Shirley Lee, age 11, of Nogales, Ariz., for her question:
HOW LONG IS THE PAN AMERICAN HIGHWAY?
Stretching all the way from the United States Mexico border to southern Chile in South America is the Pan American Highway. It is a system of highways that is 29,525 miles long.
The long Pan American Highway benefits all of Latin America's economy. It connects the east and west coasts of South America and links the capitals of 17 Latin American countries. It provides an excellent route for raw materials and agricultural products through much of Latin America.
Sometimes the Pan American Highway is described as running through the western United States and Canada up into Alaska. Hut neither country has officially named any highway as part of the Pan American system.
Four major terminals in the United States are official parts of the Pan American Highway: Nogales in Arizona and Eagle Pass, E1 Paso and Laredo in Texas.
The highway then runs through Mexico, Guatemala, E1 Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and into Panama.
Heavy jungle blocks the highway at Chepo, Panama and motorists usually ship their cars from either Cristobal or Balboa, Panama, to Columbia or Venezuela. Road construction is underway in this area which is called the Darien Gap. One of these days motorists will be able to drive all of the way south.
The Pan American Highway then follows the western coastline of South America all the way down to Puerto Montt, Chile. At Santiago, Chile, 660 miles north of Puerto Montt, a major branch of the highway cuts eastward across the Andes Mountains to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
From Buenos Aires the highway follows the east coast north to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and then turns inland to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Other branches of the highway lead to the capitals of Bolivia, Paraguay and Venezuela.
The idea to link North and South America dates from the late 1800s when men talked of building a
Pan American railway. But it was not until 1923, at the Fifth International Conference of American States, that a highway was seriously considered. This conference led to the First Pan American Highway Congess at Buenos Aires in 1925.
Organization of the system started in the late 1920s.
By 1940, over 60 percent of the highway between the United States and Panama had been completed. By the early 1950s, most of the project was open to travel in South America.
An important link in the system opened in 1962 when the Thatcher Ferry Bridge was completed over the Panama Canal in Balboa. The bridge is one mile long and is one of the world's longest steel arch bridges.
In 1930, the United States began giving financial support to speed the building of the Pan American Highway betwen Panama and Texas. This section is also called the Inter American Highway. The United States has contributed two thirds of the cost of building this part of the highway.
Each South American country has financed the building of the highways within its own borders.