Why the Americas Still Aren't Connected by a Road

last year across 2022 a quarter of a million people took the extremely difficult decision to flee from their homes and travel to Colombia before trekking further north through Central America and Mexico towards their final destination and goal safety and a new life in the United States of America this was the largest number of people in history who have ever made this journey in a single year but now in this year of 2023 there were already worrying signs that even more people are making this journey than last shattering the all-time record once again and for all the hundreds of thousands of people who are making this difficult Journey right now one intimidating obstacle stands in their way higher than all of the others the infamous Darion gap between the borders of Colombia and Panama and the frontier between the South American and North American continents this region is without a question one of the most dangerous locations on the planet and it is called a gap because for more than a hundred kilometers here between the Colombian town of Turbo and the Panamanian town of yaviza there aren't any roads at all and there isn't even really any civilization either it's just a 100 kilometer wide expansive dense wild largely Uncharted and Untamed rainforest and mountains that is nearly impassable to cross with any motorized vehicles people have tried before but only seven Expeditions in history have ever managed to cross the Darien Gap with a four-wheeled vehicle and it usually took months for them to actually accomplish that means that in reality there were only two viable ways for people to overcome the Darion Gap and travel between South and North America either walk through it on foot or travel around it by Seer air but traveling around it by Seer air costs money that hundreds of thousands of desperate people fleeing from their homes simply don't have and so for most of them considering this decision that only leaves the option to walk through it but walking through the 100 kilometers of the Darion Gap is one of the most hellish and arduous Journeys that a human being in the 21st century can possibly make the difficulties and dangers That'll Walk Through The Gap poses Are Legion and they all begin with the Region's geography and climate the cap exists only about 800 kilometers north of the equator which means that the sun is always present in temperatures throughout it remain tropical and hot all across the year temperatures can easily soar up to 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit and flanked on the North and the South by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans the humidity is always extremely high which greatly amplifies Travelers thirst and hunger levels when hiking through it then there's the Steep changes in elevation that must be considered as well the Panamanian side of the Gap is extremely mountainous with Valley floors as low as 60 meters above sea level to Soaring peaks of mountains 1845 meters above sea level higher than the tallest mountains seen in Australia and all of these high mountains are completely covered in some of the thickest jungle and rainforests seen anywhere on the planet hacking paths or Trails through it is a largely feudal effort as the dense jungle will simply swallow it all back up in a matter of days for more than 90 percent of all the days of the year it is raining with an in the Darion Gap the area receives over 5200 millimeters of rainfall a year on average which makes it one of the rainiest locations anywhere on the planet and that poses additional challenges to all those who attempt to cross it there are several rivers that run through the Gap that must be crossed and none of them have any Bridges but since torrential rainfall can happen in nearly any time and especially during the rainy season between May and September these Rivers will frequently overflow and flood this can generate sudden flash floods within the Gap that can wash away Travelers in their tents or even trigger landslides higher up in the mountainous terrain that can bury you whole but despite the high levels of rainfall and the plethora of rivers finding fresh water that is actually safe to drink within the Gap is also a challenging task because of the lack of any civilization or development within it that's already a lot of potential hazards but that's just the geography and the climate there's also the wildlife and diseases within the gap for travelers to worry about as well with in the rainforest there were all kinds of dangerous creatures poisonous frogs venomous and aggressive snakes venomous scorpions and venomous spiders can all be found throughout here and all can induce a major medical emergency in humans but the most dangerous creatures of all within the Gap are the nearly infinite mosquitoes and ticks and the plethora of deadly diseases that they carry with them like malaria yellow fever and Dengue developing the Darion Gap and building a road through it from one continent to the other is difficult because the workers who are going to have to do it are going to have to contend with all of these issues and be extremely unproductive as a result disease is rampant and knocks workers out of commission by either making them sick or killing them outright the omnipresent heat and rainfall all throughout the year keeps even the productivity of the workers who aren't sick relatively low and negatively affects resources used in road construction like concrete and asphalt as well drying concrete for roads and environments where it rains all the time is difficult while asphalt is subject to softening and deforming when placed under heavy enough loads and high enough temperatures which is always the case in this kind of environment and that's not even a mention the complexity of all the rivers that require Bridges or tunnels to be built the mountains that must be circumvented or climbed and the dense jungles that must be cut through construction projects across this region are therefore monumentally challenging time-consuming and expensive tasks to complete and that's a large part of the reason why the Darion Gap has remained undeveloped and wild throughout all of human history and why it remains essentially impossible to drive between the Americas to this day over the span of decades in the 20th century countries from all around the Americas built out the vast Pan-American Highway System extending from prudo Bay in the far north of Alaska on the Arctic Ocean to the southernmost tip of Argentina near the Magellan Strait but the 100 kilometer stretch in the center of the system that would connect South America to North America was never actually finished and that's what gave this region its name that we know it by today the Darian Gap the only remaining Gap in the entire Pan-American Highway System but that isn't to say that building a road through the Gap and finally finishing the Pan-American Highway would be impossible it's just to say that it would be very expensive to do so and moreover there were a lot of powerful interests around the world who would prefer that the Darion Gap actually remain exactly what it is a nearly impassable gap which separates North America from South America that makes it impossible to easily drive between the two continents and nearly makes it impossible to travel between the Americas by land at all effectively making North and South America separated islands where most transportation between them has to still be conducted by Seer air Chief among the countries who would like to keep things this way are Panama and the United States for a variety of reasons you see throughout the 19th century Panama was merely a province of Colombia and while Panama was connected to Colombia by land the undeveloped and nearly impassable Darian Gap effectively made Panama an island of colombias it was therefore difficult for Colombia to maintain its Authority and sovereignty within Panama and so a growing Panamanian Independence Movement began naturally taking shape by the early 20th century the United States was becoming increasingly interested in Panama because of the potential to finish the construction of the Panama Canal for centuries beforehand the only way for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans or between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States was by taking a very long journey around the entirety of the South American continent and through the Strait of Magellan across modern day Chile the very narrow Isthmus of Panama presented a unique opportunity for mankind to build a shortcut by carving a canal across just a bit more than 50 kilometers worth of land that separated the two oceans here and once it was completed American Merchant and military ships could far more rapidly travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts Gray greatly benefiting America's Naval flexibility around the world and greatly improving the speed of World Trade once finished whomever controlled the Panama Canal would control one of the most strategically important Maritime choke points in the entire world and a big country like Colombia was never going to let such a strategically valuable asset fall under the control of a foreign power like the United States and so the United States simply decided to support the native Panamanian Independence Movement instead by sending its Navy down to defend the territory from any Colombian Naval assaults and so with the undeveloped Aryan Gap preventing the Colombian Army access and the American Navy preventing any Colombian Naval access Colombia simply had no hope at Hanging On to Panama so the country declared its independence in 1903. naturally the United States was the very first country in the world to recognize Panamanian Independence and in exchange for all of its help in securing that Independence and providing the financing to help finish the Canal Panama granted the United States a Perpetual lease on all the land around the canal an area of effective U.S Sovereign control across the country that became known as the Panama Canal Zone for decades it was the United States who controlled the Panama Canal and not Panama eventually in 1977 under the threat that Panamanian forces would attack or bomb the Canal Zone unless it was returned back to Panama The Carter Administration in the United States relented and agreed to a joint Administration over the canal that was shared with Panama until 1999. when it was then finally fully handed over back to Panama after nearly a century of American control but right through to the present day the Panama Canal and the stability of Panama itself remains a top strategic priority for the United States to consider regular and reliable access through the canal enables ships in their cargo traveling between Los Angeles and New York to save more than 22 days off of their travel times that they would otherwise have to endear by traveling the long way around South America more than 14 thousand ships travel through the canal every single year still on average and around 70 percent of all of those ships remain American ships but Panama and its Canal both essentially exist as an island of stability within what's mostly a very unstable neighborhood to the north of Panama is Costa Rica which is generally ranked as actually being the single most stable country in the whole of North America exceeding the rankings of even Canada and the United States but to the south of Panama is Colombia the former Overlord and a country that has been plagued by internal violence and instability for decades now and a large part of the reason for all the violence in Colombia stems from the unfortunate fact that Colombia is basically the perfect environment for growing cocaine in near to where the Coca plant indigenously developed in the Eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains as recently as 2022 more than 60 percent of all the cocaine produced in the world was produced within Colombia and of course further to the north is the world's largest consumer market for cocaine the United States of America where in 2016 37 percent of all the cocaine in the world was consumed for decades now the transportation of cocaine from producer in Colombia to consumer in the United States has been one of the most lucrative businesses in the world to get into and has provided the funding for dozens of Rebel factions and cartels to continue their operations and resist the authority of the Colombian government and the Darian gap between Colombia and Panama presents various opportunities and challenges to all of them on the one hand the Darion Gap is a large undeveloped and difficult to access area and that makes it the perfect hiding spot for traffickers and Rebels to hide out in and run operations out of but on the other hand the nearly impassable nature of the Gap has posed a massive obstacle to drug traffickers in Colombia for generations to overcome in moving their illicit cargos from Colombia to the United States initially back in the early days of the drug trade in the 1980s the easiest and cheapest way to move cocaine to the United States was by simply loading it all up in small boats or airplanes and then just sailing or flying directly to the U.S market itself in places like Miami and Florida but over time the United States upped its Coast Guard patrols improved security at all of its ports and implemented new technologies like low elevation radar and sonar that began to sharply restrict the ability of the cartels to export their products like this that pretty much left funneling the Cocaine by land up through Central America and into Mexico before carriers would then sneak across the huge sparsely populated and sparsely patrolled 2 000 mile wide U.S Mexico border where the cocaine would make its way to Market but standing almost immediately in the way of this land route is of course the nearly impassable Darion Gap in order to get around it drug traffickers originating in Colombia will use boats Laden with cargo to make a brief sea Voyage to another part of Panama further Beyond The Gap with cocaine will then be Consolidated and picked up by others who will run it over land all the way up to the United States but these boats can be intercepted by Panamanian Naval patrols and they often are since Panama routinely scores some of the largest and highest profile cocaine busts anywhere in the world there is thus a concern that if a highway was ever finally constructed through the Darion Gap it would finally provide an easy Land Transportation route between Panama and Colombia and between Colombia and the United States enabling the shifting of the drug trade to the new easier Transportation reality which would create the potential for the greater spread of drug violence in Colombia to expand North more easily into Panama as the various cartels and rebel factions fight over the newly created and easy to move across choke point such a scenario would obviously threaten to upend Panama's current reputation for stability and potentially threaten the year-round reliable access to the Panama Canal as well and moreover the only reason why Panama was ever are able to achieve its original independence from Colombia in the first place all those years ago was because the Darian Gap acted like its Geographic shield and prevented the Colombian Army from Simply Marching In and restoring order with a road piercing through that Shield a Columbia of the future could always hypothetically decide to reinvoke its historical claims to Panama and that's a potential future that Panama and the United States would each simply like to keep Impossible by never building a road in the first place Panama is one of the few countries in the world who doesn't even have any armed forces and they would probably like to keep things that way so for those security reasons there is very little political will anywhere in Panama to finish building the road to Colombia but it's not the only security reason on the mind of the United States that's preventing their willpower as I mentioned at the beginning of this video the pace of migration coming towards the United States from around the world is growing and it is increasingly being concentrated through the Darian gap for year successive governments in the United States have made it increasingly difficult for people to illegally migrate to the country through sea and air and under building pressure from Washington Mexico has also dramatically expanded their visa requirements for entry into their country as well which has sharply limited the ability of people to fly directly to the U.S border within Mexico itself over the past few years then most migrant people who want a chance at entering the United States have had to fly to South American countries like Brazil or Ecuador instead where the visa requirements are a lot lower than in Mexico or the United States and as the domestic situation gets worse in other parts of the Americas more and more people are becoming migrants and heading towards Colombia for their chance at trekking through the Darion Gap and moving towards the U.S border by land after the assassination of their president by unknown assailants in 2021 Haiti a nation already reeling from centuries of oppressive colonialism and a devastating earthquake in 2010 has been inching ever close closer into becoming the Western hemisphere's only truly failed State as gangs have taken over much of the capital and the government has pleaded for a foreign military intervention to come and restore order Venezuela has been economically and socially struggling for over a decade now due to a long history of misguided and failed economic policies while Ecuador and Colombia continue to struggle with the violence associated with the drug war as such tens of thousands of Haitians Venezuelans ecuadorians and others have all been attempting to flee towards safety and better opportunities in the United States but most of them have no other choice but to head towards the Darian Gap and attempt to cross it by foot it is not a decision to be made lightly hiking through the Darion Gap today is a roughly 10-day Journey from beginning to end and with no civilization within it at all if something goes wrong you're pretty much left on your own there's no sell signal within the gap which means there is no ability to call Beyond it for help and no ability to use something like Google Maps just accurately track your location break a leg get bit by a snake or catch malaria and there is no hospital to call and no help to request to get you out and if you've run into trouble with a far right paramilitary death squad or drug traffickers there aren't any police to call for help and you are completely at their Mercy the Darian Gap as it currently exists acts like a massive deterrent to people who want to illegally migrate this way towards the United States but it still doesn't stop everyone from trying anyway people are growing more and more desperate as indicated by the fact that in 2021 about 133 000 migrants trekked through the Darion Gap towards the United States and then the following year in 2022 nearly double that number of people made the same journey and now in 2023 it's looking like that number May double again to as many as 500 000 trying to make the journey and the people who are doing it are coming from all over the world as far away ways China India Uzbekistan and Senegal if the deterrent are crossing the dangerous Darien Gap wasn't there and an easy to travel across Highway was there instead imagine how many more people would be trying to make the journey up towards the United States across 2022 the United States already arrested more than 2.2 million people for trying to cross the southern border illegally and that's with the Darion Gap acting as a major deterrent to all of the travel coming from South America so long as countries in the region like Haiti Venezuela Ecuador and Colombia remain unstable and are generating large numbers of migrants as long as South American countries Grant easy Visa access to pretty much anyone and as long as the United States retains a harshly anti-migrant policy the United States has pretty much no incentive to help build a highway through the Darion Gap that would otherwise finish the Pan-American Highway but would also make it dramatically easier for migrants to travel to the United States and for drug traffickers to more easily export their narcotics and violence into Panama which would threaten to destabilize Panama and potentially destabilize the all-important Panama Canal itself and for those reasons rather than for any technical reasons the Pan-American Highway is likely to remain unfinished for the foreseeable future and it will remain impossible to drive between North and South America perhaps sometime in the future when the geopolitical issues are solved though a road can finally be constructed through but when that day comes the engineering challenges to do so will be difficult you can learn more about the math and Engineering that goes into these kinds of projects by visiting today's sponsor brilliant who helped out tremendously with this video's production before making this video I had a pretty basic understanding of Concepts like geometry and algebra and how math helps to explain the world around us but without a personal teacher to help explain things to me almost everything that was any more complicated was just going going right over my head I've always struggled with learning math and science Concepts and I simply don't know what I don't already know which makes asking the right questions online a difficult task but then I went through Brilliance courses on beautiful geometry which took me through from the very Basics I understood tested my understanding along the way and explained to me the correct answers in detail anytime I 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Channel: RealLifeLore

Views: 2,916,948

Keywords: real life lore, real life lore maps, real life lore geography, real life maps, world map, world map is wrong, world map with countries, world map real size, map of the world, world geography, geography, geography (field of study), facts you didn’t know

Id: HX4J4p4R1QU

Length: 21min 23sec (1283 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 31 2023