The first motorway was the Preston bypass which opened on 5 December 1958. It was only a short stretch of motorway and so when the M1 opened in 1959 it was the first 'full-length' motorway. This first section ran from Watford (Junction 5) to Crick (Junction 18). In the 1960s the motorway was extended up to Sheffield and beyond.

Nothing like it had been seen before: at first it was a tourist attraction. In the early days of the M1 there was no speed limit, no central reservation, no motorway lighting and no crash barriers.

It was originally designed for up to 14 000 vehicles a day; today it carries ten times as many. The M1 is now 187 miles long and stretches from the North Circular road in London to the Leeds City Boundary.