Durango-Mazatlán Hwy 40D

The 140-mile drive from Durango to the coastal city of Mazatlán on Mexico’s Federal Highway 40D, inaugurated in October 2013, takes about 2½ hours, as opposed to the 6- to 8-hour drive on the “Devil’s Backbone,” Mexico’s Federal Highway 40, whose route it roughly parallels through the western Sierra Madre Mountains. 

A toll highway (with four tolls totaling MXN506, or near $39), the 40D features 63 tunnels and 32 bridges. Eight of the bridges exceed 300 feet in height, including the 3,688-foot-long Baluarte River Bridge, which, with its road deck 1,321 feet above the riverbed, is the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world, surpassing France’s Millau Viaduct (886 feet).

Completed in January 2012, the Baluarte River Bridge crosses the border between Sinaloa and Durango states, and its main span, at 1,706 feet, is the longest in North America.