 The A1 is Austria's main east-west thoroughfare and part of the major European routes E55 and E60.The construction of the first two sections near Salzburg started a few weeks after the "Anschluss" annexation of Austria in 1938, as the Nazi authorities had long before set up plans for an eastern continuation of the "Reichsautobahn 26" from Munich to Salzburg (the present-day Bundesautobahn 8) towards Linz and Vienna in what was to become the German "Ostmark".However, only two sections around Salzburg with a total length of were opened to traffic when works discontinued in 1942 due to World War II.