Background: This 800-mile-long highway links Pakistan and China. The two countries agreed to its construction in 1966, and construction continued through 1978. It took until 1986 for all of the border crossings to officially open.
How It's Unique: Building a road through one mountain pass is a daunting task, and this highway passes through the Himalaya, Karakoram and Pamir mountain ranges, reaching 3 miles above sea level at certain points. "Usually in these situations, anytime you have mountains you want to go through, you have to follow the passes," Mahmassani says. The danger of the mountain passes was all too clear during the course of the road's construction, when 810 Pakistani and 82 Chinese workers were killed.
Excerpt from http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/architecture/4338387
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