The Pennsylvania Turnpike: 80 years old today [Edit]

Illustration for article titled The Pennsylvania Turnpike: 80 years old today [Edit]
Photo: paturnpike.com

When I was younger, my family spent a fair bit of time on the PA Turnpike, at least between Breezewood and Somerset. We were living in southeastern VA, and most of my dad’s family lived in Somerset and Pittsburgh. There was always a big family gathering at my grandparents’ house on Thanksgiving, so we would leave Norfolk on Wednesday after school to make the 8-hour drive over the river and through the woods. The first year I made the trip after moving to live with my dad, my brother and I were crammed in the back of our step-mother’s Camaro. That situation improved dramatically the following year when our family bought a 77 Chevy Caprice.

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Illustration for article titled The Pennsylvania Turnpike: 80 years old today [Edit]
Photo: the news.com

Coming from the flats of coastal VA (and Illinois before that), I was always fascinated by the mountains of PA. I looked forward with great anticipation to the tunnel we had to pass through (I don’t remember which one). I marveled, even at that young age, at the engineering involved in building that road. And my god, the trucks. It was the height of the CB craze, and my head was full of Macks and Kenworths and Peterbilts. My grandfather had built their house on a hill, and you could see the Turnpike from their front porch, as wells as the Somerset turnpike exit plaza. I loved to sit at that high point and watch the endless stream of traffic on the road down below.

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Illustration for article titled The Pennsylvania Turnpike: 80 years old today [Edit]
Photo: turnpikeinfo.com

The older I get the more nostalgic I get. And while those family trips only lasted a few years before my brother and I got older and our lives continued in other places, I still have very fond memories of those trips. The Gateway restaurant in Breezewood, the Howard Johnson restaurants at the service plazas. The church that had a steep stairway built down to the Turnpike so travelers could stop on the side of the road and go to a service. And all those trucks.

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The Old Motor has a nice post that was written five years ago for the Turnpike’s 75th anniversary.

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“Dream Highway” – The Pennsylvania Turnpike 75th Anniversary


I sent the Old Motor post to my father, who was born in 1940, the year the Turnpike opened. He replied with this email:

Pappy [my dad’s dad] had an aunt Edith, “Aunt Eed” whose husband had a pheasantry where he raised ring necked pheasants for the PA State Game Commission.

We would usually, about once a year, visit Eed and Fy. The farm, with its huge ancient farm house, was in the mountains north of Harrisburg. Interestingly, the site was at the foot of Peters Mountain, where the Appalachian Trail still traverses. So, that meant a drive from Somerset to the Tpk’s end near Carlisle. There was still a distance of probably 50 miles on state roads to reach our destination. (We also frequently traveled the west end from Somerset to Irwin, on our way to do Christmas shopping in Pittsburgh. We also had doctors in PGH.)

I can also remember when the eastern and western extensions were built - to the Delaware River in the east and the Ohio state line in the west. It was also at this time that Ohio was building its own TPK. The two tpks were joined ca. 1955 Then the Northeast Extension was added, from near Philly to Scranton in the north.

So, I have very clear memories of what the TPK was like in its earliest iterations. Tunnels, service plazas toll booths et al. The median was grass, there were no barriers between the east-west lanes.

Since there was an interchange in Somerset, that made the community the hub for construction and worker services, like dorms and restaurants.

Ah, the memories! Thanks for sending this.