Smyrna Times

HIGHWAY TO
MEXICO CITY

Opens Up
Our
Southern
Neighbor For Complete
Tourist Travel

770
MILES
OF
ROADS

Washington.-Mexico is pushing forward its greatest highway project-an improved road linking the United States border at Laredo, Texas, with its capital, Mexico City. The federal highway commission of Mexico states that this 770-mile section, opening up northeastern Mexico to tourist travel and trade, will probably be ready for through traffic in June, 1933.
A bulletin from the National Geographic society describes the chief cities and scenic features along this picturesque route, which will be a part of the proposed 10,000-mile Pan-American highway linking Washington, D. C., with Buenos Aires, Argentina, and other Latin American capitals.
"Motorists seeking new roads to conquer will find that this 'farthest south' for a continuous highway journey from the United States is a roadway of spectacular variety," says the bulletin. "The route traverses deserts, mile-high mountains, ranch country, lush tropical jungles, and, in places, runs through deep canons where the highway is a mere scratch on the steep mountainside.
Ties Up With United States.
"From San Antonio, Texas, a paved road southward to the twin border cities of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo ties in the new Mexican highway with the improved road system of the United States. Nuevo Laredo, in the Mexican State of Tamaulipas, and the first city to be reached after crossing the Rio Grande, has developed amazingly in the last two years, since pavement was completed to Monterrey. This 151-mile section compares favorably with the best American highways. One stretch runs 45 miles across the desert without a curve.
"Monterrey, the capital of the state of Nuevo Leon, is surrounded by mile-high peaks, the most conspicuous being its famous Saddle mountain (Monte de la Silla).
"An improved gravel road leads from Monterrey over the mountains to the west of Saltillo, capital of Coahuila, a region of ranges where long-horned cattle graze. This eventually will be part of a through route to Mexico City via San Luis Potosi.
The main highway today, however, strikes south to Ciudad Victoria. This 180-mile section is about a quarter paved and the rest is all-weather gravel. Here the road winds through one of the chief fruit-raising sections of Mexico.
Paradise for Hunters.
From this point to the little town of Valles, in the state of San Luis Potosi, the road surface alternates between gravel and graded earth. This region is a paradise for hunters-wild boar, deer, raccoon, quail and turkey being plentiful. Coffee, cotton, rice and vanilla beans are the principal crops.
"In the rugged mountain section between Valles and the village of Jacala, in the state of Hidalgo, construction work has been moving forward slowly since April, 1931. Here the road climbs from the dense tropical jungles and swamps along the Tamuin river, where parrots fly overhead, and gorgeous flowers and banana groves border the highway, to the tableland.
"From Jacala southward an improved highway will carry the route through Pachuca, an important silver mining town, into Mexico City. Rapid progress has been made here in recent months, and what some travelers once characterized as the 'most dangerous road in the world' may soon be a modern boulevard, a monument to engineering skill. Near Pachuca are great basaltic formations sometimes called 'the Giant Causeway of America.'
"From Mexico City modern roads are branching out in all directions. The longest, of all-weather gravel construction, extends over the Old Spanish Trail to Acapulco. Another carries the Pan-American highway southward to the city of Puebla."