What Do You Know?

About roads...

The first major road was the Persian Royal Road, which stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean Sea. It was 1775 miles long and used around 3500-300 B.C.

The Romans were renowned for their empire's roads. At its peak, the Roman Empire had 53,000 miles of roads from Britain to North Africa.

The first major motorway was built from Cologne to Bonn from 1929-1932. In 1933, Adolf Hitler began a motorway network, the Reichsautobahnen (national motor roads).

The earliest roads were the paths of prehistoric peoples; construction of roads began with the advent of wheeled vehicles.

Road improvements began in many countries during the 1880s and '90s to accommodate bicycles.

This isn't really a "road" fact, but I found it interesting: North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand have the highest concentrations of cars. All of these areas have ratios of 1 car per 2-4 persons. By contrast, China numbers 1 car per 2000 persons.

Posted by Jennifer at September 5, 2003 09:52 AM

Tweet