North America Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === <span id="Infrastructure">Transport</span> === {{main|Transportation in North America}} [[File:Class1rr.png|thumb|A 2006 map of the North American [[Class I railroad]] network]] The [[Pan-American Highway]] route in the Americas is the portion of a network of roads nearly {{Cvt|48000|km}} in length which travels through the mainland nations. No definitive length of the Pan-American Highway exists because the U.S. and Canadian governments have never officially defined any specific routes as being part of the Pan-American Highway, and Mexico officially has many branches connecting to the U.S. border. However, the total length of the portion from Mexico to the northern extremity of the highway is roughly {{cvt|16000|mi|km|order=flip}}. The first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. was built in the 1860s, linking the railroad network of the eastern U.S. with California on the [[Pacific]] coast. Finished on 10 May 1869 at the famous [[golden spike]] event at [[Promontory Summit, Utah]], it created a nationwide mechanized transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the [[U.S. West|American West]], catalyzing the transition from the [[wagon train]]s of previous decades to a modern transportation system.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11371/ |title = Ceremony at "Wedding of the Rails", May 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, Utah |website = [[World Digital Library]] |date = 10 May 1869 |access-date = 20 July 2013 |archive-date = 18 October 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131018052635/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11371/ |url-status = live }}</ref> Although an accomplishment, it achieved the status of first transcontinental railroad by connecting myriad eastern U.S. railroads to the Pacific and was not the largest single railroad system in the world. The Canadian [[Grand Trunk Railway]] had, by 1867, already accumulated more than {{cvt|2055|km}} of track by connecting Ontario with the Canadian Atlantic provinces west as far as [[Port Huron, Michigan]], through [[Sarnia, Ontario]]. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page