This study examines how the development of railroads and highways in the early Pahlavi period contributed to the formation of a national community in Iran with a particular focus on the experience of the modern middle class. How did the Iranian modern middle class imagine railroads and highways? What were their visions of a national community? Finally, how did traveling on trains and automobiles impact the ways they conceived the national community? By looking at the modern middle class’s experiences with new modes of transportation, this paper seeks to shift focus from a state-centric perspective and discuss the role society played in the processes of national formation. Historiography on transportation infrastructure in Iran generally focuses on politics and international relations. While such issues as Anglo-Russian rivalries, America’s involvement, and the attitudes of Reza Shah and prominent Iranian statesmen shed light on one aspect of nationalist politics, existing works do not elucidate nation-building as an everyday practice experienced by ordinary Iranians. Furthermore, most works privilege political periodization and overemphasize transformations that started with the rise of Reza Khan in 1921 and ended with his demise in 1941. Thus, despite the continued daily experience in railway journeys among Iranians after the 1938 completion of the Trans-Iranian Railway and throughout World War II, many works abruptly end their narrative in 1938. To rectify this historiographical problem, this study looks not only at how the modern middle class envisaged railroads and highways transforming the Iranian nation but also how this class modified its imaginations as railway and highway journeys became more common from the late 1930s. Using a wide range of primary sources from the Iranian press, travel guides, memoirs, literature, and visual images, this study makes three interrelated arguments: 1) the way modern middle-class Iranians understood their experiences with railroads and highways was mediated by their perceived social standing within the nation; 2) while the modern middle class viewed the rest of the population as ignorant masses to be enlightened, it also feared the increased mobility and visibility of Iran’s backwardness; 3) despite the separation that modern middle-class Iranians imagined between themselves and the rest of the population, actual experiences of journeys necessarily entailed shared time and space with others and fostered a differentiated yet more inclusive sense of a national community.