One hundred years ago, the world's first highway was built, do you know where?

The world's first motorway, a road intended exclusively for cars, i.e. motorized vehicles, was opened exactly one hundred years ago, in September 1924, and connected Milan and Varese in northern Italy.

The road, which was opened by the Italian king Vittorio Emanuele III, is today part of the Italian highway network and is named A8, Telegrafi reports.

It was called the Autostrada dei Laghi - "Highway of the Lakes" because it greatly facilitated the travel of tourists to Lake Maggiore, Lugano and Como.

It was the first part of the Italian motorway network, which expanded rapidly and continues into the "main" Italian motorway, the A1 - Milan-Rome-Naples, better known as the Autostrada del Sole.

The person most responsible for the construction of the world's first highway was the Milanese engineer Piero Puricelli, who not only conceived and designed with vision the road exclusively for cars, but also managed all the bureaucratic and legal aspects of the construction.

The first modern highway was completed in 15 months. There were two lanes in each direction, separated by a double line. Toll booths were placed along the road – also the first in the world, and the payment was 10 lira.

Although the Autostrada dei Laghi is undoubtedly the first highway built in the world, a similar idea was realized in Germany in 1909, when a road with lanes separated by a green belt was built in Berlin between Grunwald and Vanesi, but intended for vehicle testing only.

The first autobahn in Germany was opened in 1932 – the Cologne-Bonn section. Denmark had its first motorway in 1956, while Great Britain opened a 13 kilometer section in 1958. Japan's first motorway was registered in 1965. /Telegraph/