ROADS THAT MAKE DEATH SMILE
It’s funny how most of us just enjoy our very averagely built roads without know that there are some roads out there that have pure architecture written all over them.
Now it is common to hear people say:
Here is a fun fact, some roads apart from their aesthetic form, were built just to take lives. There is every form of danger written all over them, but that doesn’t stop people from using them even when they know it cold literarily cost them their lives.
Let us get to meet some of them
- THE ZOJI LA, INDIA
wiki commons, by VinayakPhadatare under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This road is one of the very narrowly built roads in india. This roads actually connects two different cities and cannot be avoided expecially seeing as people have to necessarily commute the road. The road apart from being quite narrow, is actually 5 ½ mile long, and comes with an interesting twist. Sometimes you have livestock obstructing the road while trying to move between cities, now when this happens, you just have to sit still in your car till they all pass by before you even attempt to proceed with your journey. This can be annoyingly frustrating because you cannot even turn around, one hell of a one way street.
- THE TRANSFAGARASAN, ROMANIA
Petr Kraumann CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This road stretches half-way up and down the Făgăraș mountains in Romania, while reaching a maximum altitude of 6000 ft. Now obviously viewing the road from a distance will thrill your but note that at that high altitude, it becomes very dangerous. If you have never been on a roller coaster then you should try descending some of the hills on the road. The road is actually rarely used because a lot of people now have some appreciation for how dangerous it is.
- THE DALTON HIGHWAY, ALASKA
By Kelly from Austin, US CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Alaska is a very small town with about three villages connected by this very isolated highway. Now normally Alaska has many parts of it uninhabited and this highway adds to one of the reasons why one should be careful why travelling within the state. The road almost stretched till infinity, covered up in miles of just white snow. If ever you decide to travel this road, ensure you have good snow tires, a fully charged batteries, and enough supplies, because if for any reason your car was to break down, it could take days or maybe weeks before anyone even notices you. It also holds a record of being one of the snowiest highways in the world, and a very disturbing fact is that it never gets ploughed since it is rarely used.
- KHARDUNG LA, INDIA
By Ashishyadav.photographs CC BY-SA 4.0 , from Wikimedia Commons
This road has a reputation for being one of the most dangerous roads on earth confirmed by both the National Geographic and The Guinness book of World Records with an altitude of 18379 ft, making it the tallest pass road in the entire world. You best ensure you A game on if ever you decide to traverse this road or risk meeting your maker sooner than you thought.
- YUNGAS ROAD, BOLIVIA
By No machine-readable author provided. Ilosuna assumed "based on copyright claims" GFDL , CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
There is a statistics that over 200-300 people die on this road every year because of its topography. You have a mountain on one side and o the other a cliff. When driving on this road you can easily drive off the road to your death since you really cannot see the entire road from a place.
- THE ATLANTIC OCEAN ROAD, NORWAY
By Ernst Vikne "Atlanterhavsveien" CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Firtsly, you have to give it to the architect that designed the road, it is a dangerous masterpiece. Now this road runs straight across the Atlantic Ocean, and draws a lot of tourists to feed their eyes to its majestic nature. The twist comes in a very death deserving way, during high tides the waves that crash over the road are powerful enough to send a vehicle into the Atlantic Ocean. Your best bet would be to travel the road during low tides, but then again, nature has its ways of being unpredictably stubborn.
- GUOLIANG TUNNEL, CHINA
By FANG Chen from Beijing, China "2011-4-29 17-24-01" CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The locals of china built this long road that connects several tunnels as their only source to access the remote village. This road plays hero and villain at the same time; when you are on the road, you are at risk of falling of the cliff, but when you are inside any of the tunnels, some form of safety provided by the walls of the tunnel lets you smile temporarily.
- LE PASSAGE DU GOIS, FRANCE
Raphaël Toussaint GFDL or CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This road reminds me of when the children of Israel passed through the red sea with the sea parting temporarily to grant them passage on dry ground. This road is very special because it opens up for just a few hours each day and when the tides rise, it gets covered up with water. You do not want to be caught idling around on the road when the tides come up.
- THE TIANMEN MOUNTAIN ROAD, CHINA
By Huangdan2060 "Public domain" from Wikimedia Commons
I really wonder why this 6ft long road has exactly 99 turns, what happened to the remaining one to make it 100. Truth is, each turn is actually more dangerous than the other, so maybe the road builders decided not to make the Guiness world record of having 100 ways to kill a man in one place right?
That isn’t even the sweetest part. The height of this road keeps you 3300 ft above the ground, so any wrong turn or drunk driving can send you to an early grave.
- HANA, HAWAII
By Tony Webster from Portland, Oregon 'Road to Hana' CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ever heard of landslides? This very dangerous road in Hawaii gets closed sometimes to help protect the travellers from falling off any of the bridges because of a land slide. The road is very narrow with bridges, most of these roads are so marrow that it only permits one-way driving. People visit Hawaii and come back with sweet memories, let yours not be a landslide.
- COL DE LA BONETTE, FRANCE
wikicommons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Speak of a road that has a knack for car accidents by providing the steepest and sharpest turns in the world, then you have to mention this particular road. The road is so death friendly that people rather seek altenate routes so as not to add to the statistical deaths that accumulate yearly.
- THE ISLAND COUNTY BRIDGE, WASHINGTON
Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
I look at the images taken of this bridge and wonder how it even exists. There are no rails to support you as you drive by, so it’s safe to say you can drive to your death just by deciding to use the bridge.
ALL THESE DANGER SIGNALS CANNOT DENY THE FACT THAT SCIENCE TRULY HAS FOUND A WAY TO MAKE NATURE ACCESSIBLE AND WELL AS MORE DEADLY TOO. THESE ROADS ARE BEAUTIFUL IN THEIR OWN RIGHTS, BUT THE RIGHT TO CLAIM LIVES WAS GIVEN TO THEM BY US.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED YOUR READ. Stay tuned to @oleevertwist for more exciting content.
References
Wikipedia
Facts Verse
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