When Napoleon finished constructing roads over the Simplon and Mont Cenis passes in 1810 he proclaimed, "there are no longer any Alps."
I love that quote, pulled from any number of sources, and I love it particularly for how people think of high mountain roads, as if we as humans have conquered them. Every time I read it I think of barely crawling up some steep mountain two-lane in the California Sierra Nevadas in my parent's four-cylinder '92 Camry and I just laugh.
And while we never really conquer any mountains, we as humans keep trying. There is, for instance, the amazing Chungara–Tambo Quemado pass between Chile and Bolivia, sitting high at 15,000 feet and still susceptible to traffic jams.
What's the highest road that you know of?
Photo Credit: Roman Bonnefoy