Who Built the First Motorways
Italy opened the first purpose built motorway, the Milan to Lakes autostrada, in 1924. Germany followed with the experimental AVUS and the Cologne to Bonn road of 1932, then expanded the Autobahn network.
America brought limited access toll roads to scale with the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1940 and the Interstate System from 1956. Each generation copied the best ideas across borders..
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