The Eastern Main Road is a major road in Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...

 running from Port of Spain

Port of Spain

Port of Spain, also written as Port-of-Spain, is the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the country's third-largest municipality, after San Fernando and Chaguanas. The city has a municipal population of 49,031 , a metropolitan population of 128,026 and a transient daily population...

 in the west to Sangre Grande

Sangre Grande

Sangre Grande is the largest town in northeastern Trinidad, in Trinidad and Tobago. It is east of Arima and southwest of Toco. Sangre Grande is sometimes abbreviated to just "Grande". It is the seat of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation. The town falls into the Toco/Sangre constituency of the...

 in the east. The towns of the East-West Corridor

East-West Corridor

The East-West Corridor is the built-up area of north Trinidad stretching from the capital, Port of Spain, 15 miles east to Arima. The term was coined by economist and political philosopher Lloyd Best, after gleaning the works of a technocrat named Lynette Attwell. The Corridor includes such towns...

 are strung along its route. Until the construction of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway

Churchill-Roosevelt Highway

The Churchill–Roosevelt Highway is the major east-west highway in Trinidad and Tobago. It runs for from Barataria in the west to Wallerfield in the east where it ends in the former US Army base on Fort Read. It crosses the north-south Uriah Butler Highway at Valsayn...

 (in 1941) and the Beetham Highway

Beetham Highway

The Beetham Highway is a major highway in Trinidad and Tobago. It runs from Barataria into downtown Port of Spain where it meets Wrightson Road. It was constructed between 1955 and 1956....

 (in 1955-56) the Eastern Main Road was the main route of travel between Port of Spain and Arima

Arima

The Royal Borough of Arima is the fourth largest town in Trinidad and Tobago. Located east of the capital, Port of Spain, Arima supports the only organised indigenous community in the country, the Santa Rosa Carib Community and is the seat of the Carib Queen...

. Along much of its length, the Eastern Main Road is notoriously congested.

The Eastern Main Road began as the camino real (royal road) between Port of Spain and Tunapuna

Tunapuna

-Town:It is located between St. Augustine, Tacarigua and Trincity. Tunapuna is the largest town between San Juan and Arima. It is an important market and commercial centre, and is the seat of the Tunapuna-Piarco Regional Corporation...

. By the 1840s it was extended to Arima, and in the 1880s it was extended to Sangre Grande, to serve the cacao-producing districts in eastern Trinidad.