This mountainous highway was popularized by a British TV show which named it the 'Best Road in the World'. It is another project built by Nicolae Ceausescu, completed in 1974 and cost the lives of 40 men. Some articles say it was an important military route built to defend themselves against the Russians should they invade Romania as they did Czechoslovakia in 1968. Other articles say there is a better faster military route and there is absolutely no use for this winding road.