Found below are ten roads which have been given
everlasting fame by becoming the subject of some form of popular culture,
either by way of a famous painting, book, song, film or TV show.
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| The Transfagarasan, Romania |
The city of Chicago in the state of Illinois
has been the location of over two hundred films since the making of the cult
classic, The Blues Brothers, in 1980.
The film features three iconic car chases in which
actors John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd make their way along down town Chicago’s, Route
12, incorporating the city’s Park Ridge, Dixie Square Mall, Calumet Bridge,
Lower Wacker Drive and the Richard. L. Daley Centre along the way.
Fisherman's Wharf in the
Californian city of San Francisco is the first scene to be shown in one
of the world's most iconic movie car chases ever made.
The ten minute, fifty three second classic, car chase
was performed by movie legend Steve McQueen and stunt man Bud Ekins in the 1968
Hollywood blockbuster, Bullitt.
A classic Ford Mustang was used in the making
of the film, which attained speeds of between eighty and one hundred miles an
hour during filming, as it made it’s way through the city's undulating Hyde,
Laguna, Filbert and University Streets before terminating on the Guadelupe Canyon
Parkway located near the outskirts of the Californian city of Brisbane.
The Furka Pass is a 31 kilometer long mountain
pass located in the Valais Alps of central Switzerland.
This well maintained, tarmac surfaced road, which has
an ultimate elevation of 2,429 meters, consists of countless hair pin bends as
it makes it’s way through the lush alpine terrain of the Urseren Valley,
passing the Gotthard Massif, the Rhone Glacier and the Bernese Alps located
between the two villages of Gletsch in Valais Canton and Realp in Uri Canton.
The pass is closed during the Winter months owing to
snow making it impassable, but the Valais Alps can still be crossed, either by
way of the Furka Oberlap Bahn which links the ski resort of Distentis with the
city of Brig or by the Furkha Cogwheel Heritage Steam Train, which links the
village of Realp with the village of Oberwald.
The pass was originally constructed in 1888 by the
Swiss military but found everlasting fame by being chosen as a location in the
1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger.
The Great
Saint Bernard Pass is a 34.62 kilometer long mountain pass located between
Martigny in Valais, Switzerland and the Aosta Valley of northen Italy.
The pass,
which is part of the E27 autoroute, was named after Bernard Menthon,
Patron Saint of the Alps, and is famous for it's mountain top St Bernard's
Hospice, originally founded in 1049, and the St Bernard dogs which the hospice
has used in mountain rescues since the eleventh century.
The pass,
which has an ultimate elevation of 2,469 meters located at the site of the St
Bernard Hospice, is only passable during the months of June through to
September.
The pass
travels through the desolate landscape of the Dranse d'Entremont, beside the
scenic St Bernard Lake and through the Great St Bernard Pass Tunnel.
The road
has gained everlasting momentum by being depicted in Jacques - Louis David's
oil painting, Napoleaon at the Great St Bernard Pass, Hippolyte
Dalaroche's oil painting, Bonaparte Crossing the Alps and in the opening
sequence of the 1969 film, The Italian Job, starring Michael Caine. Another iconic car scene in this film was
the Mini convoy, which was filmed in the city of Turin, much to the chagrin of
the Italian car manufacturer Fiat who are based there.
The Moyenne
Corniche is a 42 kilometer long coastal road located along the entire coast
of the European principality of Monaco.
The road,
which is a section of the much longer, National Route 7, which links the
French capital Paris with the Italian border, also forms part of the Three
Corniches Road, a set of three scenic coastal roads located between the
French coastal cities of Nice and Menton.
The road
has been epitomised in the 1955 romantic thriller, To Catch a Thief, starring
Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
Shortly
after filming there Grace Kelly met her future husband, Prince Rainier III of
Monaco, whom she married in 1956.
Princess
Grace died in 1982 after having suffered a stroke whilst out driving with one
of her daughters, but contrary to popular belief, she was not driving along the
Moyenne Corniche at the time of her accident, but along a private road which
led to her home at the hilltop, Royal Palace of Monaco, situated at the summit
of the Rocher de Monaco.
Monument
Valley is a vast
rock hewn, desert landscape situated at an elevation of 1,800 meters above sea
level along the Colorado Plateau in the U.S.A.
A 27 kilometer
long dirt road located along the Utah / Arizona state line, which forms part of
the 104 kilometer long, US Route 163 between the town of Kayenta in
Arizona and the town of Bluff in Utah, has been epitomised in hundreds
of films over the years including such Hollywood greats as Stagecoach
made in 1939, the Eiger Sanction made in 1975, Thelma & Louise made
in 1991 and Forrest Gump made in 1994.
Route 66. So iconic is
the 3,945 kilometer long Route 66, also
known as the Will Rojers Highway, that it is listed on the United
States’ National Register of Historic Places.
The historic highway starts life in the city of
Chicago and travels in a southerly direction through the five states of
Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, before veering in a westerly
direction through the three states of New Mexico, Arizona and California, where
it terminates in the coastal city of Santa Monica in Los Angeles County,
California.
The road has been the subject of countless films and
documentaries over the years, but it’s most famous claim to fame comes from the
1949 song, Route 66, composed by American songwriter, Bobby Troup, and
performed by numerous artists over the years.
The song was first performed by iconic crooner, Nat
King Cole in 1949, followed by another crooning giant, Perry Como, in 1959 but
the most famous rendition of all was by rock and roll legend, Chuck Berry, in
1961.
The Stockenchurch
Gap is a 47 meter wide, chalk gorge located in the Chiltern Hills of
Oxfordshire in England.
The 1,200
meter long gap, which today forms part of the M40 Motorway became a
regular household sight during the 1990’s when this section of the motorway was
shown on the opening credits of the British situation comedy, The Vicar of
Dibley, starring comedienne, Dawn French.
The Transfagarasan is a 90 kilometer long
mountain pass which forms part of the DN7 road located in central
Romania.
The road, which consists of numerous hairpin bends,
sweeping curves, sharp descents and several tunnels and bridges, reaches an
ultimate elevation of 2,034 meters, as it makes it’s way between the small
towns of Pitesti and Arpasu de Jos.
The road, which crosses the Fagaras Mountain of the
Southern Carpathian Mountains between Romania’s two highest peaks the
Moldoveanu and the Negiou, passes Balea Lake, Balea Waterfall, Capara
Waterfall, Lake Vidaru and it’s dam, the small towns of Arefu and Curtea de
Aiges, the ancient city of Sibiu and the former home of the imfamous Vlad the Impaler,
the Poinari Fortress.
The road is generally closed buring the Winter months
owing to snow making it impassable, although snow can infact close the road at
any time of the year, even during the Summer months.
Constructed in 1974 on the orders of the country’s
former dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, at a cost of forty labourers lives, the
road gained international fame in 2009 after being voted the Best Driving
Road In The World by the presenters
of the British motoring show, Top Gear.
The Tihuta Pass is a 42 kilometer long mountain
pass which forms part of the 252 kilometer long, DN17 road, located
between the cities of Dej and Suceava in northern Romania.
The pass was made famous by Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula,
where it was then called the Borgo Pass, a name it is still known by
today.
The pass, which is located along the Bargau Mountains
and reaches an ultimate elevation of 1,201 meters high, travels through steep
rocky gorges and lush green alpine terrain as it makes it’s way between the
Transylvanian city of Bistrita (also mentioned in Bram Stoker’s novel) and the
ski resort of Vatra Dornei.
Today the pass is better known for being the access
road to an ancient Roman road located at an elevation of 1,116 meters (also
mentioned in Bram Stoker’s novel), which leads to the the the Fantanele Ski
Resort, the Fantanele Stone Monastery and the Castel Dracula Hotel.  |
| Part of Route 66, U.S.A |
FIND HOTELS ALONG THE ROUTE OF THESE POPULAR ROADS
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