Motorbike route N-340: the longest road in service in Spain

Dear guest, the N-340 road (or Mediterranean road) is the longest of the national roads in Spain. It connects Puerto Real in Cádiz with Barcelona along the entire coast of the Spanish Mediterranean, crossing ten provinces. The N-340 road also has a European nomenclature: E-5 in the Vejer de la Frontera-Algeciras section. 

At 1,248 km it was the longest national highway in the country. The N-340 has been unfolded and converted into a dual carriageway, becoming called A-7, except between Puerto Real and Algeciras (currently up to Vejer de la Frontera), which has been renamed A-48. The N-340 road serves, together with the N-332, as a free alternative to the AP-7 motorway in the sections where it passes. 

The national highways are inherited from the Roman roads. Under the mandate of Cesar Augusto, shortly before our era, this in particular was the Via Augusta, which went from Rome to Gades, at present-day Cádiz. 

In 1926, under the mandate of Primo de Rivera, the first attempt was made to modernize these roads under the name of the National Circuit of Special Pavement. 

In 1941 the Peña plan was born, giving name to the current national ones. The national highways are based on concentric and radial roads, the latter are six and all the radial ones start in Puerta del Sol (Madrid), reaching the geographical extremes of Spain. 

The N-340 is a concentric road. Its nomenclature means: the first digit corresponds to the fact that this national is born between the radial 3 and 4. The second indicates that it is more than 400 km from Madrid and the third, in the concentric it must be even, since the radial is odd. 

The N-340 runs through 4 Autonomous Communities in its entirety: Andalusia, Region of Murcia, Valencian Community and Catalonia. And 10 provinces: Cádiz, Málaga, Granada, Almería, Murcia, Alicante, Valencia, Castellón, Tarragona and Barcelona. 

It is a journey through a large part of history that unites us more than separates us: The Phoenician Gadir (Cadiz), passing through the also Phoenician Malaka (Malaga), the Arab Al-Maryya (Almeria), the Roman Murtia (Murcia), the Greek Akra-Leuca or the Roman Lucentun (Alicante), the Roman Valentia Edetanorum (Valencia), the Arab Castellón, the Roman Tarraco and the Cartaginesa Barcelona.