Pennsylvania turnpike

A major roadway in the state of Pennsylvania linking the greater Philadelphia area in the southeastern portion of the state to Pittsburgh and the Ohio border in the west. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is part of America?s interstate highway system and portions of it are known as Interstate 70 and Interstate 76.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike was America?s first limited access superhighway and was loosely based on the concept of German Autobahn superhighway network. The highway opened to traffic on October 1, 1940, and like the Autobahn, there was originally no speed limit. The highway was originally 160 miles long and linked Carlisle to Irwin. The Pennsylvania Turnpike currently extends 319 miles from the town of Bristol on the Delaware River to its western terminus at the Ohio border in Lawrence County, where it links up with the Ohio Turnpike. In addition, there is a 110 mile long Northeast Extension linking greater Philadelphia with Interstate 81 near Clarks Summit. There are also 62 miles of other extensions in the western portion of the state with more planned to be completed in the first decade of the 21st century.

Much of the grade for the highway was originally surveyed as one of two potential rail road grades across the Allegheny Mountains by Colonel Charles Schattler of the US Army Corps of Engineers in the 1840s . One of the routes was used by the Pennsylvania Railroad company to link Pittsburgh and Philadelphia by rail in 1850. The other one was never utilized until 1883, when the New York Central Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad?s chief rival, decided to challenge the PRR by building a second route through the Allegheny Mountains to reach the lucrative Pittsburgh freight market. The rail bed was only about 60% complete by 1885, when the project was abandoned due to massive cost overruns. In the 1930's the still abandoned rail right of way, including several completed tunnels, was acquired by the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and the highway followed the general path of the abandoned rail road through the rugged Allegheny Mountains.

Today, the Turnpike is controlled by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, handles over 172 million vehicles per year, and employs nearly 2,200 people.