The first controlled-access highway, and a predecessor to the national highways in Taiwan, was the MacArthur Thruway, built in 1964 between Keelung and Taipei. Construction on the first modern national highway, National Highway 1 began in 1971. The northern section between Keelung and Zhongli was completed in 1974, and the entire freeway was completed in 1978. It runs from the northern harbor city of Keelung to the southern harbor city of Kaohsiung, while there was an branch (No. 1A) connecting to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport).