U.S. Route 30 in Pennsylvania

 File:LincolnHighwayMarker.jpg

U.S. Route 30 is a major transcontinental route of the United States Numbered Highways. In the state of Pennsylvania, it runs from the West Virginia border west of Pittsburgh to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, where it crosses the Delaware River into New Jersey. Except for the last bit in Philadelphia, US 30 is or parallels the Lincoln Highway, which ran from San Francisco, California to New York City before the U.S. Routes were designated. From Philadelphia northeast to Trenton, New Jersey, where the Lincoln Highway crossed the Delaware River, the highway is now U.S. Route 1 and its former alignments.

Route description and history

The Lincoln Highway crossed the state of Pennsylvania via Philadelphia, Lancaster, York, Gettysburg and Pittsburgh. This bypassed Harrisburg to the south, and thus did not use the older main route across the state between Lancaster and Chambersburg. The route incorporated a number of turnpikes:

• Byberry and Bensalem Turnpike, Oakford (Neshaminy Creek) to Philadelphia
• Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, Philadelphia to Lancaster, tolls abolished September 5, 1918
• Lancaster and Columbia Turnpike, Lancaster to Columbia
• Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, Columbia to Wrightsville
• Wrightsville Turnpike, Wrightsville to York
• York and Gettysburg Turnpike, York to Gettysburg
• Chambersburg and Gettysburg Turnpike, Gettysburg to Chambersburg
• Chambersburg and Bedford Turnpike, Chambersburg to Bedford
• Bedford and Stoystown Turnpike, Bedford to Stoystown
• Stoystown and Greensburg Turnpike, Stoystown to Greensburg
• Pittsburgh and Greensburg Turnpike, Greensburg to Pittsburgh

New Jersey through Philadelphia

The original 1913 path of the Lincoln Highway ran to Camden, New Jersey before crossing the Delaware River into Philadelphia. The city of Philadelphia marked the route from the Market Street Ferry west on Market Street through downtown and onto Lancaster Avenue to the Lancaster Turnpike in early 1914.

By 1915 Camden was dropped from the route, allowing it to cross the Delaware on a bridge at Trenton. It first crossed at the Calhoun Street Bridge, running along Trenton Avenue to Fallsington. In 1920 it was moved to the Bridge Street Bridge, passing through downtown Morrisville on its way to Fallsington.

Lincoln Highway in Bucks County in 1922. This is now looking west on Woolston Drive with a ramp to the U.S. Route 1 freeway ahead; the underpass under the Trenton Cutoff is to the left.

At Fallsington, the original road crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad's Trenton Cutoff on a bridge just east of the present bridge, built on a reverse curve to shorten the span. It used Trenton Road and Main Street from the bridge to the intersection with Woolston, where Main Street is now cut. In 1917, an underpass under the railroad was built to the west on Woolston Drive; this became the main route by 1924.

From Fallsington the route used what is presently known as Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 1 Business), splitting onto Maple Avenue (Route 213) to pass through Langhorne. From there Old Lincoln Highway heads southwest; it no longer crosses SEPTA's R3 West Trenton line, but its replacement - the U.S. Route 1 freeway - crosses just to the east.

The present route of Lincoln Highway and US 1 Business was built in 1923, bypassing Langhorne to the south and avoiding two railroad crossings. This crosses under the US 1 freeway just south of the railroad, where the older route had crossed the railroad. It curves southwest to become Old Lincoln Highway and crosses Neshaminy Creek as a one-way southbound bridge, becoming two-way at Bristol Road. (This bridge itself was built in 1921 to replace a covered bridge just to the west.) After crossing Street Road it heads south and is gated at an 1805 stone bridge across Poquessing Creek at the Philadelphia city line, just after crossing Roosevelt Boulevard. The old alignment continues through the woods, closed to traffic, paralleling power lines to near Hornig Road, after which it was upgraded on the spot to become Roosevelt Boulevard.

Closer to downtown, the old alignment splits from Roosevelt Boulevard at Haldeman Avenue and then follows Bustleton Avenue. (A short piece of Old Bustleton Avenue southwest of Welsh Road was used, crossing Pennypack Creek east of the current bridge.) By 1914, Roosevelt Boulevard was completed to Rhawn Street, so the Lincoln Highway turned off Bustleton Avenue there to reach the Boulevard. It then turned south on Broad Street to downtown, turning west at Penn Square onto [Market Street to reach Lancaster Avenue and the Lancaster Turnpike. (Prior to the building of Roosevelt Boulevard, the main road followed Bustleton Avenue to Frankford Avenue to reach downtown.)

A 1920 extension took the Boulevard to Welsh Road, allowing traffic to turn off Bustleton Avenue there (that route is still Route 532), and a 192 extension took it to the intersection with Old Lincoln Highway just north of the Poquessing Creek bridge. North of there the present US 1 was completed in 1933 to the south end of the 1923 Langhorne bypass and in 1938 to Bellevue Avenue (Route 413) in downtown Langhorne.

A bypass was added around downtown Philadelphia (in addition to the downtown route) in 1924, using Hunting Park Avenue, Ridge Avenue and City Avenue. This alignment is now used by U.S. Route 1, except that Hunting Park and Ridge Avenues are now bypassed by the Roosevelt Expressway and Schuylkill Expressway.

Philadelphia to Pittsburgh

At Philadelphia, the Lincoln Highway turned west, following the old Lancaster Turnpike (now U.S. Route 30) to Lancaster. Just east of Lancaster, it branches off of PA 462, the original allignment to bypass the cities of Lancaster and York. Just west of York, the other end of PA 462 meets with U.S. 30 on its way to Gettysburg. Beginning in 1999, the bypass around Lancaster went under major renovations including collector-distributor roads.

Through Pittsburgh to Ohio and West Virginia

The Lincoln Highway came into the Pittsburgh area along the old Pittsburgh and Greensburg Turnpike (now U.S. Route 30) from Greensburg. The borough of White Oak had named their main street Lincoln Way in an attempt to convince the Lincoln Highway Association to use it, but instead the Highway continued along the old turnpike to North Versailles.

In North Versailles, the Lincoln Highway and old turnpike left current US 30 onto the road named Greensburg Pike, heading downhill into Turtle Creek. The original bridge over Turtle Creek and the Pennsylvania Railroad main line curved right and ran to Airbrake Avenue west of 11th Street; a 1925 replacement continued straight to meet Airbrake Avenue at Monroeville Avenue. The alignment continued west on Penn Avenue, turning south at Braddock Avenue. (The old turnpike left the Lincoln Highway there, cutting southwest to cross the railroad at McDonald Street, and then heading northwest along Penn Avenue Extension and Greensburg Pike.) After a short while on Braddock Avenue, the Lincoln Highway turned northwest on Electric Avenue, which becomes Ardmore Boulevard to Wilkinsburg. The George Westinghouse Bridge opened in 1932 as a bypass of the grades into and out of Turtle Creek, running from the Greensburg Pike in North Versailles to Ardmore Boulevard in Chalfant.

The Lincoln Highway joined the William Penn Highway and rejoined the Greensburg Turnpike at Penn Avenue in Wilkinsburg. After entering Pittsburgh and crossing the Pennsylvania Railroad main line, it turned west on Baum Boulevard, following present Route 380 onto Craig Street and Bigelow Boulevard to downtown.

The Boulevard of the Allies opened east from downtown Pittsburgh in 1920, and in 1924 it was designated as an alternate route. At least in 1930, this bypass ran along the Boulevard of the Allies, Forbes Avenue, Beeler Street, Wilkins Avenue and Dallas Avenue, rejoining the Lincoln Highway at Penn Avenue, west of Wilkinsburg.

The Lincoln Highway left the north side of Pittsburgh along California Avenue, passing high above Woods Run and Jack's Run. These bridges had been built for a streetcar line, and were replaced by wider concrete arch bridges in 1928 and 1924, respectively. After crossing Jack's Run, the Lincoln Highway passed through Bellevue on Lincoln Avenue, coincidentally named after Lincoln soon after the U.S. Civil War.

The California Avenue name returned through Avalon. Somewhere in or near Emsworth it joined the current Ohio River Boulevard (Route 65).

After passing through Rochester and Beaver, the Lincoln Highway ran along Tuscarawas Road and Smiths Ferry Road (once part of Route 168) through hilly terrain to the Ohio River at Glasgow, where it continued west next to the river into Ohio.

Due to the bad condition of the Lisbon Road, a temporary detour from Rochester, Pennsylvania to Canton, Ohio via Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and Alliance, Ohio was established in 1924. In 1927 a new permanent alignment opened between Pittsburgh and East Liverpool, Ohio, taking the Lincoln Highway across the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia for the first time. This alignment is approximated by present Route 60 and U.S. Route 30.

From 1948 to 1960, the Penn-Lincoln Parkway East and Penn-Lincoln Parkway West were built to replace both the Lincoln Highway and William Penn Highway through Pittsburgh with a freeway. U.S. Route 30 (Lincoln Highway) and U.S. Route 22 (Penn Highway) were rerouted to use the new Parkways.

External links

• James Lin, The Lincoln Highway: Pennsylvania
• Lincoln Highway maps ca. 1926, New York to Pittsburgh