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The M62 motorway is a west–east motorway in northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 (Shannon to Saint Petersburg) and E22 (Holyhead to Ishim). The road is 107 miles (172 km) long; however, for seven miles (11 km), it shares its route with the M60 motorway around Manchester. The motorway, which was first proposed in the 1930s, and originally conceived as two separate routes, was built in stages between 1971 and 1976, with construction beginning at Pole Moor and finishing in Tarbock. The motorway also absorbed the northern end of the Stretford-Eccles bypass, which was built between 1957 and 1960. Adjusted for inflation to 2007, the motorway cost approximately £765 million to build. The motorway is relatively busy, with an average daily traffic flow of 100,000 cars in Yorkshire, and has several areas prone to gridlock, in particular, between Leeds and Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.

Since the Stretford-Eccles bypass was opened, the motorway's history beyond construction has included a coach bombing on 4 February 1974, and a rail crash on 28 February 2001. The motorway is additionally memorable for Stott Hall Farm, a farm in the Pennines situated between the carriageways, existing due to the geology of the surrounding area and has since become one of the most known sights in West Yorkshire.

The road passes the cities of Salford, Manchester, Bradford and Leeds. Between Liverpool and Manchester, and east of Leeds, the terrain of the road is relatively flat, while between Manchester and Leeds, the road crosses the hilly Pennines to its highest point on Saddleworth Moor (53°37′47″N 2°01′07″W / 53.62982, -2.018561 (Saddleworth Moor)), which is also the highest point of any motorway in the United Kingdom, at 1,221 feet (372 m) above sea level.

The origins of the M62 date back to the 1930s, where the need for a route between Lancashire and Yorkshire had been agreed after discussion by the respective highway authorities of the counties. At the same time, it was envisaged that a route between Liverpool and Hull was also needed, connecting the two ports to industrial Yorkshire.

Some years later, after World War II, the Minister of Transport appointed engineers to inspect road standards between the A580 road in Swinton and the A1 road near Selby. In 1949, that year's Road Plan for South Lancashire specified the need for the dualling and grade separation of the A580 road, and bypasses of both Huyton and Cadishead. In 1952, the route for a trans-Pennine motorway, known as The Lancashire-Yorkshire Motorway, was laid down, with Ferrybridge chosen as the eastern terminus rather than Selby. By the 1960s, however, the proposed dualling of the A580 in Lancashire was considered inadequate, and there was "an urgent need" to link Liverpool to the motorway network. The route of the Lancashire-Yorkshire motorway was also considered inadequate as it failed to cater for several industrial towns in Yorkshire. When James Drake visited the United States in 1962, his experience with the Interstate Highway system led him to conclude that the Merseyside Expressway, planned only to run between Liverpool and the M6, would need extending to the Stretford-Eccles Bypass, thus creating a continuous motorway between Liverpool and Ferrybridge (a link between Ferrybridge and Hull was not considered until 1964). Initially these plans were unpopular and unsupported by the Ministry of Transport, but nevertheless the scheme was added to the Road Plan in 1963.

Originally, the section of the M62 west of Manchester was intended to be a separate motorway linking Liverpool with Salford, but a continuous motorway between Leeds and Liverpool was deemed to be more feasible, known as the M52. Construction of the motorway between Liverpool and Manchester started in 1971, with the construction of a link between the M57 and the M6 motorway. Concurrently, a contract to link the M6 with Manchester was under way, which required the removal of unsuitable material and drainage of the land. This section was completed in August 1974, creating a continuous link between Ferrybridge and Tarbock.

The section between Tarbock and Liverpool was the last section of the motorway to be completed, in 1976, due to the difficulties of building an urban motorway. In total, two viaducts, ten bridges and seven underpasses had to be constructed to secure the structural integrity of the surrounding residential area. The motorway, however, reached only as far as Queen's Drive (Junction 4), leaving the first three junctions unbuilt.

The M62 motorway is mentioned in a number of songs. One of the earliest songs is "Driving Away From Home (Jim's Tune)" by It's Immaterial, a 1986 song which described the motorway as a way of getting to Manchester from the band's hometown of Liverpool. "The Snake", a song from the album Secrets by The Human League, discusses the road as an alternative route to Hyde from the Snake Pass, the main subject of the song, and suggests the A628 as another alternative.

More generally, "It's Grim Up North", by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, released in 1991, consisted of a list of towns and cities in the "grim North", in addition to the motorway itself. Doves named a song after the M62 on their 2002 album The Last Broadcast, which is stated to have been recorded "under the M62 flyover at Northenden", although the M62 is several miles to the north. "The Man Who Lives On The M62" by John Shuttleworth and "Tradition" by Kathryn Williams refer not to the motorway itself, but to Stott Hall Farm. Shuttleworth compares his emotions of sorrow to those of the inhabitants of the farm, while Williams uses the urban legend of the owner's refusal to sell the farm as an example of tradition.

Rugby league is a popular sport in northern England — so much so that a 1994 survey revealed that sixty percent of people regularly attending rugby league matches lived in only four postal districts along the M62. Only two teams in the Super League, Catalans Dragons and Harlequins Rugby League, play outside northern England, and thus the phrase "M62 corridor" is sometimes used as a synonym for the rugby league heartlands.

In addition to passing Warrington, Manchester, Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield, the towns of Huyton, St Helens, Widnes, Bury, Rochdale, Dewsbury, Pontefract, Selby and Goole are designated as primary destinations along the road. The road is a terminus to two motorways: the M57 motorway near Prescot and the M18 motorway near Rawcliffe; and has four spur routes: the M602 motorway, which serves Manchester, the A627(M) motorway, which serves Oldham and Rochdale, the M606 motorway, which serves Bradford, and the M621 motorway, which serves Leeds. Despite Hull being listed as a primary destination, the motorway downgrades near North Cave, sixteen miles west.

The motorway starts on Queen's Drive, on Liverpool's middle ring road. From there it runs eastward to Liverpool's outer ring road, the M57. The route has four exits for Warrington: Junction 7, an interchange with the A57 road, Junction 8, which also houses Ikea, Junction 9, which interchanges with the A49 road, originally intended to be a motorway itself, and Junction 11. Between these is Junction 10, which is a cloverstack interchange with the M6 motorway. The M62 then crosses Chat Moss before interchanging with the M60 motorway. Due to original plans being to extend the section of the motorway into Manchester, motorists must turn off to stay on the route into Yorkshire.

The Alaska Highway (also known as the Alaskan Highway, Alaska-Canadian Highway, or ALCAN Highway) was constructed during World War II and connects the Continental U.S. to Alaska through Canada. It runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. Completed in 1943, it is 2,451 kilometres or 1,523 miles long. The historic end of the highway is near milepost 1422, where it meets the Richardson Highway in Delta Junction, Alaska, about 160 km (100 mi) southeast of Fairbanks. Mileposts on the Richardson Highway are numbered from Valdez, Alaska. The Alaska Highway is popularly (but unofficially) considered part of the Pan-American Highway, which extends south to Argentina.

The pioneer road completed in 1942 was approximately 1,680 miles from Dawson Creek to Delta Junction. The army then turned the road over to the Public Roads Administration of Washington, which then began putting out section contracts to private road contractors to upgrade selected sections of the road. These sections were upgraded, with removal of excess bends and steep grades; often, a traveler could identify upgraded sections by seeing the telephone line along the PRA-approved route alignment. When the Japanese invasion threat eased, the PRA stopped putting out new contracts. Upon hand-off to Canada in 1946, the route was 1,422 miles from Dawson Creek to Delta Junction.

The route follows a northwest then northward course from Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson; until 1957, a suspension bridge crossed the Peace River just south of Fort St. John, when it collapsed; a new bridge was built shortly after 1957. At Fort Nelson, the road turns west and crosses the Rocky Mountains, before resuming a westward course at Coal River. The highway crossed the Yukon-BC border nine times from Mile 590 to Mile 773, six of those crossings were from Mile 590 to Mile 596. After passing the south end of Kluane Lake, the highway follows a north-northwest course to the Alaska border, then northwest to the terminus at Delta Junction.

Postwar rebuilding has not shifted the highway more than ten miles from the original alignment, and in most cases, by less than three miles. It is not clear if it still crosses the Yukon-BC border six times from Mile 590 to Mile 596.

The original agreement between Canada and the United States regarding construction of the highway stipulated that its Canadian portion be turned over to Canada six months after the end of the war; this took place on April 1, 1946 when the US Army transferred control of the road through the Yukon and British Columbia to the Canadian Army, Northwest Highway System. The Canadian government paid $123,500,000 to the U.S. government for the highway and Northwest Staging Route assets. However, the highway needed considerable reconstruction to make it usable and was only opened to unrestricted traffic in 1947. The Alaskan section was completely paved during the 1960s; largely gravel even in 1981, the Canadian portion of the Alaska Highway is now completely paved, mostly with bituminous surface treatment.

The Milepost, an extensive guide book to the Alaska Highway and other highways in Alaska and Northwest Canada, was first published in 1949 and continues to be published annually as the foremost guide to travelling the highway.

The British Columbia government owns the first 82.6 miles of the highway, the only portion paved during the late 1960s and 1970s. Public Works Canada manages the highway from Mile 82.6 (km 133) to Historic Mile 630. The Yukon government owns the highway from Historic Mile 630 to Historic Mile 1016 (from near Watson Lake to Haines Junction), and manages the remainder to the U.S. border at Historic Mile 1221. The State of Alaska owns the highway within that state (Mile 1221 to Mile 1422).

Extensive rerouting in Canada has shortened the highway by approximately 35 miles (55 km) since 1947, mostly by eliminating winding sections and sometimes by bypassing residential areas. Therefore, the historic milepost markings are no longer accurate but are still important locally as location references. Some old sections of the highway are still in use as local roads, while others are left to deteriorate and still others are ploughed up. Four sections form local residential streets in Whitehorse (3... see map) and Fort Nelson (1), and others form country residential roadways outside of Whitehorse. Although Champagne, Yukon was bypassed in 2002, the old highway is still completely in service for that community until a new direct access road is built.

Rerouting continues, expected to continue in the Yukon through 2009, with the Haines Junction-Beaver Creek section covered by the Canada-U.S. Shakwak Agreement. The new Donjek River bridge was opened 26 September 2007, replacing a 1952 bridge. Under Shakwak, U.S. federal highway money is spent for work done by Canadian contractors who win tenders issued by the Yukon government. The Shakwak Project completed the Haines Highway upgrades in the 1980s between Haines Junction and the Alaska Panhandle, then funding was stalled by Congress for several years.

The Milepost shows the Canadian section of the highway now to be approximately 1187 miles, but the first milepost inside Alaska is 1222. The actual length of the highway inside Alaska is no longer clear because rerouting, as in Canada, has shortened the route, but unlike Canada, mileposts in Alaska are not recalibrated. The B.C. and Yukon governments and Public Works Canada have recalibrated kilometreposts only as far as a point just at the southeast shore of Kluane Lake, with the latest BC recalibration in 1990 and the only Yukon recalibrations in 2002 and 2005 (based on the distance value where the BC calibration of 1990 left off).

There are historical mileposts along the B.C. and Yukon sections of the highway, installed in 1992, that note 83 specific locations, although the posts no longer represent accurate driving distance.

The portion of the Alaska Highway in Alaska is Alaska Route 2. In the Yukon, it is Highway 1 and in British Columbia, Highway 97.

For people interested in learning more about the history of the Alaska Highway there are several books on its construction, including "Alcan Trail Blazers: Alaska Highway's Forgotten Heroes."

The Canadian section of the road was delineated with mileposts, based on the road as it was in 1947, until 1978, and over the years, reconstruction steadily shortened the distance between some of those mileposts. That year, metric signs were placed on the highway, and the mileposts were replaced with kilometre posts at the approximate locations of a historic mileage of equal value, e.g. Kmpost 1000 was posted approximately where historical Mile 621 would have been posted.

Reconstruction continues to shorten the highway, but the kilometre posts, at two-km intervals, were recalibrated along the B.C. section of road in 1990 to reflect then-current driving distance. The section of highway covered by the 1990 recalibration has since been rendered shorter by further realignments, such as near Summit Pass and between Muncho Lake and Iron Creek.

Based on where those values left off, new Yukon kilometre posts were erected in fall 2002 between the B.C. border and the west end of the new bypass around Champagne, Yukon; in 2005, additional recalibrated posts continued from there to the east shore of Kluane Lake near Silver City. Old kilometre posts, based on the historic miles, remain on the highway from that point around Kluane Lake to the Alaska border. The B.C. and Yukon sections also have a small number of historic mileposts, printed on oval-shaped signs, at locations of historic significance; these special signs were erected in 1992 on the occasion of the highway's 50th anniversary.

The Alaska portion of the highway is still marked by mileposts at one-mile intervals, although they no longer represent accurate driving distance, due to reconstruction. The historic mileposts are still used by residents and businesses along the highway to refer to their location, and in some cases are also used as postal addresses.

Residents and travellers, and the government of the Yukon, do not use "east" and "west" to refer to direction of travel on the Yukon section, even though this is the predominant bearing of the Yukon portion of the highway; "north" and "south" are used, referring to the south (Dawson Creek) and north (Delta Junction) termini of the highway. This is an important consideration for travellers who may otherwise be confused, particularly when a westbound travel routes southwestward or even due south to circumvent a natural obstacle such as Kluane Lake.

Some B.C. sections west of Fort Nelson also route more east-to-west, with southwest bearings in some section; again, "north" is used in preference to "west".

Lincoln Highway is one of the biggest highways in the US. The Lincoln Highway was the first road across America. This famed transcontinental highway, the first practical automobile road to link the East and West coasts of the United States, was actively promoted by entreprenuer Carl G. Fisher. By early September 1912, he began organizing the effort by holding a dinner meeting in Indianapolis with many of his automobile industry friends where he urged their support to help fund it.

The Lincoln Highway spanned almost 3400 miles (5400 km), coast-to-coast, from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. In 1915, the "Colorado Loop" was removed, and in 1928, a realignment relocated the Lincoln Highway through the northern tip of West Virginia. Thus, there are a total of 14 states (and 128 counties) through which the highway passed at some time in its history.

As the first road across America, the Lincoln Highway brought great prosperity to hundreds of cities, towns, and villages along the way. Affectionately, the Lincoln Highway became known as "The Main Street Across America", a nickname that, even today, remains synonymous with the famous old road. Additionally, with the renewed interest in America's historic two-lane highways, and in deference to Route 66 having been nicknamed "The Mother Road" by John Steinbeck, the older and longer Lincoln Highway has become regarded as "The Father Road", a nickname used regularly by American Road magazine, and by author Michael Wallis in his recent book, The Lincoln Highway, the Great American Road Trip.

Route 66 is one of the most famous, one of the most popular and just a historical highways in the world. It also known as U.S. Route 66, The Main Street of America, The Mother Road and the Will Rogers Highway. Over the years, U.S. Route 66 received many nicknames. Right after Route 66 was commissioned, it was known as The Great Diagonal Way because a large section of the highway (Chicago to Oklahoma City) ran diagonally, unlike the other highways. Later, Route 66 was advertised as The Main Street of America by the US Highway 66 Association to promote the highway. The title had also been claimed by supporters of U.S. Route 40, but the Route 66 group was more successful. In the John Steinbeck novel The Grapes of Wrath, the highway is called The Mother Road. The title continues to be applied to the highway. Lastly, Route 66 was unofficially named The Will Rogers Highway by the U.S. Highway 66 Association in 1952. A plaque dedicating the highway to the humorist is still located in Santa Monica, California. There were more plaques like this; one can be found in Galena, Kansas. It was originally located on the Kansas-Missouri state line, but moved to the Howard Litch Memorial Park in 2001.

The history goes back in 1926 and it originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles for a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). The building finished in 1938 and after that there were only improvments.

Traffic grew on the highway because of the geography through which it passed. Much of the highway was essentially flat and this made the highway a popular truck route. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s saw many farming families (mainly from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas) heading west for agricultural jobs in California. Route 66 became the main road of travel for these people, often derogatorily called "Okies". And during the Depression, it gave some relief to communities located on the highway. The route passed through numerous small towns, and with the growing traffic on the highway, helped create the rise of mom-and-pop businesses (mainly as service stations, restaurants, and motor courts) up and down the highway.

Today, Route 66 is a very popular brand. TV-shows, songs, Kmarts line of jeans also bear the name of the highway. The Disney/Pixar movie Cars is set mainly in the fictional town of Radiator Springs, located on Route 66 and bypassed by I-40. An NBA Development League basketball team, the Tulsa 66ers, was named after the route. The road also lent its name to a minor league baseball team, the Inland Empire 66ers!

The history of this highway in enormous. And it's certain, that this piece of road will certainly be a part of the US history in the future.