16. Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse (Grossglockner High Alpine Road)
Location: Austria
The name alone gives you goosebumps. Any road with High Alpine in its name is guaranteed to provide you with a trill while negotiating its bends and twist surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Built in the 1930s during the Great Depression, as a mean of providing employment for at least some of Austria’s vast army of unemployed workers, Grossglockner High Alpine Road was ridiculed as one of many government’s blunders. The expected number of 120,000 visitors annually was especially deemed delusional. Yet, in 1938, 375,000 people were visiting remote Alpine valleys made accessible by the project, and soon the road was enlarged to accommodate increased traffic. Sometimes, even the government can get it right.
