The Transfăgărășan Highway (Romanian: Drumul Transfăgărășan or simply Transfăgărășan) is a 2,042-meter-high mountain pass in Romania. The road connects the Argeș Valley in Great Wallachia with the Olt Valley in Transylvania, crossing the Făgăraș Mountains - a mountain range in the Transylvanian Alps. The Transfăgărășan Highway is part of the 151-kilometer (149.82 km[1]) long, south-north-running national road (Drum național) DN 7C.
Description of the north side downwards:
From Lake Bâlea, the road winds in many serpentines in the Bâlea Nature Reserve (Valea Bâlii)[5] down to Transylvania.[6] At an altitude of about 1600 m is the rock breakthrough "Poarta Întâlnirii" (Gate of Encounter), the place where the northern and southern construction teams met in 1974. A little further down at about 1200 m is a second rock breakthrough, called "Poarta Geniștilor" (Gate of Pioneers). The Transfagarasan Highway continues past the Bâlea Waterfall (Cascada Bâlea) to the town of Cârțișoara in Sibiu County and after another four kilometers the highway ends at the junction with the DN 1 national road - part of the European route 68.
One third of the route runs on the north side of the Fagaras Mountains and was also the slightly more difficult section of the route for its construction. Because low-hanging clouds occasionally obstruct visibility here in the Bâlea Valley, the Transfagarasan Highway is also known as the road in the clouds.
Officially, construction of the road is said to have begun on March 10, 1970. On the orders of the then head of state, Nicolae Ceaușescu, the highway was intended to serve a tourist purpose as well as a military purpose, caused by the tense relationship with the Soviet Union after the events of the Prague Spring. The road connection over the high mountains was intended to enable rapid troop movements. After four and a half years of construction, the road was opened on September 20, 1974. Miners, construction workers and construction engineers were involved in the construction, the majority of whom were soldiers from Regiments 1 from Râmnicu Vâlcea and 52 from Alba Iulia. The construction of the road claimed many lives. Officially, 40 fatalities are reported;[3] contemporary witnesses, however, mention 400 deaths at the Vidraru Dam,[7] and others speak of 400 deaths at the Bâlea Tunnel.[8] A more precise number of fatalities during the construction of the road is therefore unknown.