The Pennsylvania Turnpike: America's First Superhighway
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
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Thanks for activating my PTSD. You haven't lived until you're going down a hill on the turnpike in front of an 18-wheeler about to hit a curve and wondering if that little piece of metal is going to be enough to stop you from falling into the town under you. Meanwhile the locals are zooming past you doing 95 taking the curves like they are some rally car driver. And this is at night in a snow storm.
As a former over the road driver I'd rather drive the rockies than the Alleghenies
@davidboysel4509 oh I feel you. Back before the pandemic I worked at Estes. They wanted to train me on the Williamsport run. At night. In the winter time. I was like no no no no no thank you.
Well that's all we have open, you'll have to go back on the dock... Where's my forklift
It's a beautiful view on the way down though. Either way...
WV highways can get to be pretty challenging, too, especially at night or in bad weather.
Ah, yes, literally bumper to bumper at 70mph or more, at night, in a driving snowstorm, on a slippery pavement. This was back in the 1980s. Enforcement of driving too fast for conditions wasn't a thing then.
As a bonus, sometimes I could still make out the signs that said, "Watch For Falling Rocks." As if there was anywhere I could go to escape an avalanche or landslide!
"Super easy, barely an inconvenience." -I love how Ryan George has worked his way into so much youtube & internet culture. 😂
To me, the worst part of driving on the Penna Turnpike is two semis driving side by side from Breezewood to Irwin 90 mph downhill, 35mph uphill, neither one passing each other for what seems like a hundred miles!
That stretch is 94 miles, so it makes sense that it feels like 100.
Most vivid memory is driving along under a clear blue sky, cresting the hill east of Breezewood and immediately being plunged into whiteout conditions.
Only thing I miss driving up there is swinging through Breezewood TA and grabbing some good food
As a Pennsylvanian, I wish this highway never existed. Bring back SEPTA's line connecting Allentown with Philadelphia.
to be fair they only introduced license plate scanning on the turnpike sometime around covid, i remember not even that recently as a kid/teen you needed to grab a ticket from a machine and then pay to an attendant when you got off.
The thing I don’t like about it is for the amount of tolls for a heavy semi tractor trailer. The whole 359 mile trip from Ohio to New Jersey will cost us around $250 one way.
Even for a non-commercial vehicle it is over $135. Which is pretty crazy.
@ Highway robbery.
The Ohio Turnpike has some of the best rest stop restrooms. Fight me.
You mean only having half the bathrooms open during morning rush at like 5-6am as all us truckers are getting up and rolling? Kansas Turnpike would beg to differ on rest area bathrooms btw.
Ohio’s restrooms used to be latrines, back in the 1950’s, early 60’s, just like in summer camp.
As somebody who just drove most of the Ohio Turnpike earlier this week, I wholeheartedly agree
Apparently none of you have been to "pickle park" off I-86 in rural NY state. You can take a wild guess at what goes on there 😂
They’re rebuilding and expanding all the fun twisty bits. It used to be fun in a sporty car, but now not so much.
Doing it for safety and to allow for higher speeds. PTC is also expanding 100% of the TP to 3 lanes. Doing this as part of the process. I'm okay with that. Driving 2 lanes from King of Prussia is Harrisburg is terrible. It's really pretty through there.
Cutting costs by those super rich men is what caused the Johnstown Flood
Driving my daddy’s T-bird west out of Philly in my late teens, late 1960s rock’n’roll radio blaring from the AM radio, turnpike lanes full both directions, cars snaking around the curves, the quintessential American experience. Driving on I-76, only 6 on Interstate system, honoring the American Revolution declared July 4, 1776 at Independence Hall.
There’s also an I-86, in 2 places. New York & Idaho.
@@ericquinn8578not to mention I-66 & I-96
Until your daddy took your T-bird away
Drove down the turnpike today. My least favorite part is paying to drive on a road. 😂
Because they don’t cost anything? Actually per use tax is the most fair tax.
What do I hate about the PA turnpike? The PA Turnpike Commission and it's insatiable need to waste money and constant need to increase tolls to excessive levels to deal with the wasteful spending. PTC is slowly making it 3 lanes all the way out to Carlisle (Middlesex). Thank the Shuster (fmr congressmen for Breezewood). Done ranting as a PA resident. Driving though the old train tunnels are really really cool tbh. It's the only easy way to get to certain parts of the state from Philly. Yes, road can 100% be built to be racist by bypassing certain neighborhoods or going through them etc. it's actually a huge issue about lower income/race issues in the US. The Philadelphia PA TP spur is known as the Schuylkill or i-76 as the main TP goes due east at KOP....worst road ever.
I am going to respectfully disagree. The road isn't racist, the motivation for building the road was racist. IF, the building of the road was racially motivated and not due to the low cost of the Eminent Domain.
My dad used to have to drive on the Schuylkill everyday from Morgantown to Philly. Fuck the Schuylkill man. Every time I got car sick it was there.
The bypassed section of turnpike with the Sidling Hill and Ray's Hill Tunnels east of Breezewood is now a bike/hiking trail. I have hiked, camped, and even ran a half marathon on The Abandoned Turnpike.
Worst thing about the PA turnpike? the inevitable New Jersey drivers everywhere
In the early 80s, we routinely drove from Pittsburgh to Bucks county and back in about 4 hours.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the untolled I-80, sometimes still called the Keystone Shortway. It is definitely the fastest way to reach New York City from Ohio.
It's a shit show in the winter.
@@JoshShannontx - All highways in the Northeast are a challenge in the winter. The snow is usually "wet" making for slippery roads. Dry powder snow is generally much easier.
Thank you.
I would say the PA turnpike is the straightest highway in the USA.
1. It doesn't deviate or go around natural or manmade geography significantly.
2. It spans the entire state.
3. I always knew PA's width because of the turnpie's mile markers.
4. Does any state or country have its two largest cities vary less in latitude, such as Pittsburgh and Philly?
It's crazy to think that all this happened in the lifetime of my granparents. My grandmother told me a story of picnicking on the turnpike when she was a child.
My grandmother was born in 1935 and grew up in Springfield, Ohio. She used to tell stories about how when she was a little girl her family went on a little trip to check out the Pennsylvania Turnpike when it was new.
4:50 - Mid roll ads
6:20 - Chapter 1 - Envisionning a superhighway
8:30 - Chapter 2 - Finding the money
12:40 - Chapter 3 - A new type of roadway
17:30 - Chapter 4 - The 1950's & the 1960's
21:50 - Chapter 5 - Some turnpike quirks
27:05 - Conclusion
@20:00 I’ve always used this church as a landmark on my way back from the beach to suburban Pittsburgh.
It is a beautiful church, the inside is more impressive than the outside!
I held my breath going through the Allegheny Tunnel driving back from Indy once. Darn near blacked out by the time I made it out the other side.
There is something to like about the Pennsylvania Turnpike?
It's not just the bridges that need to be updated and fixed... the entire state of PA needs new roads!! The only roads that I've found that are worse are D.C. and Baltimore MD.
Come to Michigan 😂 PA was bad but wow are Michigans roads bad
I'm guessing that you haven't driven on I-10 through Louisiana. It will shake your vehicle apart.
Going to NY and you'll be happy for the shit we have here in PA
Or as I call the PA turnpike " the original white knuckle ride" ❤
Fun fact, one of civil defense plans for the turnpike was as an alternative hangars and runways for interceptor fighter aircraft because of the long straightaways .
As a kid how many times did I ask: “Are we there yet?” as we made our way along the Turnpike.
I am a writer with an environmental group that is working to prevent the PA Turnpike from doing an environmental disaster. The commission wants to build a 7 lane bypass of the Allegheny Tunnel which will blow out much of a mountain and ruin the environment forever, when they could just easily construct a 3rd tunnel. Don't let that happen! The commission, however, does not care about what we say, just as they dont' care about how much they charge drivers. P.S. I tried Squarespace, I could not figure it out and it was very difficult to use.
In the70's the road to Grandma's house included the turnpike from Breezewood to Irwin. My favorite part was the tunnel, where to my parents' irritation, we would roll down the window and scream and/or whistle loudly to hear our echo. Ah, childhood.
Back in the day, the PA Turnpike was a notorious speed trap from end to end. It might still be but I haven't been on it in decades.
7:15 We actually inspired them for that other stuff 👍🏻
They built 162 miles of highway, almost from scratch in 23 months. Today they can’t pave or redo 10 miles of highway in a year. That was with a lot of steam powered equipment back then too.
Great video! I was looking for a comprehensive history of the PA Turnpike without spending hours doing so.. I watched a number of them about the turnpike and I would have saved so much time if I had found this first. Just what I was looking for! Thanks!
Tell Simon "The past was the best".
Appreciate Larry's storytelling on scripts would love to see one on the new jersey turnpike and the Brooklyn bridge
Thanks For this! Love your content ❤❤❤
Up until the late 90s, there used to be designated right shoulder "picnic areas" with widened width and picnic tables west of the King of Prussia interchange.
The steps up from the Turnpike to St. John's were torn out somewhere in the late 2000s to early 2010s IIRC. If you want to go to mass now (going westbound), you have to get off at Bedford and take local roads from there.
Thank you Eric I appreciate the content didn't know much about the Pennsylvania turnpike maybe next could be cape Canaveral or the Johnson space center
Reminds me of Sunday drives in the 60s! FYI - Kennywood amusement park in Pittsburgh had a ride called the Turnpike, tiny, small engine racecars on a scenic track.
I live in Pennsylvania and will do everything within my power to not use the PA turnpike. What an overpriced crappy road most expensive road to use in the entire US.
It's in the top ten of highest toll per mile/kilometer in the world
I avoid it, too! I travel from Harrisburg to Johnstown via 322. It's 30 minutes longer, but it doesn't require taking out a second mortgage!
Turnpike, 43 and 576 in the Pittsburgh region are all so pointless now. Insanely expensive.
I loved driving the turnpike in Ohio, but when we had to visit family in DC i always loved driving the tunnel through the Applaichian Mountains was an awesome experience!
I often drive from chester county to Pittsburgh to visit family. Knowing this makes the drive a bit more interesting.
You telling me people drove the turnpike FOR FUN??? How bored were our ancestors holy crap!!!
The Cajon Pass in SoCal is a fun ride 😬☠️
LOOK THIS UP PEOPLE! THE PA TURNPIKE IS SUPPOSED TO BE FREE TO ALL PA RESIDENTS ONCE CONSTRUCTION IS COMPLETE! THATS WHY THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSTRUCTION GOING ON IN/ON THE TURNPIKE! ITS IN THE CHARTER IM SERIOUS!
One time in the late 2010s driving home from a job site deep in WV i seen a semi truck with an animal trailer with Mexico plates, can you guess what was inside the animal trailer.
If you guessed a bunch of happy waving smiling foreigners who were ready to run into the woods on either side of the highway if pulled over than you guessed right.
That is something i will never forget, it will forever be in my brain playing to John Denvers country roads.
Grade is calculated as ft over ft, not meters. A 3% grade would be 3 ft. Rise over 100 ft run. Therefore a 100% grade would be 100ft over 100ft or 45 degrees.
As all my friends in Pennsylvania say, there are two seasons in PA, winter, and construction season.
After all "you have a friend in Pennsylvania". I have quite a few because i live right near the state line in NY. Anyone old enough to remember the old PA license plates gets it 😂
Or better yet, the front vanity plates that read :
You Have a Friend in
JESUS
Pennsylvania
Those guys who drilled holes in the mountains and then stopped understood the sunk cost fallacy
Because the construction required the state to borrow money to build it, a referendum was required. Like any election, their was campaigning on both sides. One of the points made by the "pro" side was that the road would be a toll road only until the loan was paid off, at which point it would become part of the interstate highway system. But when that time came, there was an uproar by the union representing the toll collectors and the tollbooths stayed up. Then along comes COVID, the Turnpike goes touchless tolls, they fire the toll collectors, and raise the tolls.
My favorite part about the Pennsylvania Turnpike is Breezewood.🎉
The stairs to St John's Church are now gone. There is a widening project going through there right now.
People still asking where Simon went is wild. Did they just get out of prison? Did they recently awaken from an extended coma? And if they were really such big fans of him, you'd think they'd know that Simon hasn't actually gone anywhere. Dude still has like 10 channels. No, I will not name them. Do your own legwork.
By far, the biggest problem with the PA turnpike is that it is located in Pennsylvania. God, I hate living here.
When I lived outside Philly, I was a member of a fire company that covered the PATP from Willow Grove to Philly.
In the late 1990s the PATP had paid off their Bonds, there was going to finally be a link up from the turnpike to I-95.
Funny how not only didn't that happen but money, clearly going against the charter of the PATP, is funding public trans in Philly and Pittsburgh causing yearly toll hikes.
The connector between the Turnpike and I-95 was completed several years ago. The old section of I-95 from about Langhorne to the Delaware River is now called I-295 and I-95 is the new road that leads to the Turnpike interchange.
No mention of governor Earle, largely responsible for PA’s “little new deal” which played a major part in the X76 road system construction????
Ive been staying at a motel just about 500 ft. from the PA turnpike. Its really loud, especially all the trucks.
The very first interstate highway was constructed in 1924 in Italy (between Milan and Lake Como and Lake Maggiore). This is where Hitler got his inspiration for the Autobahn from.
The Autobahn was also specifically designed to carry drivers along beautiful areas so they were able to enjoy the beautiful vistas. That's why they didn't travers the land dead straight from point A to point B but rather meandered through the countryside.
Only later did governments realize the importance of the highway system for military logistics. That's why countries like the US , Germany and Sweden started to incorporate dead straight sections into highways that could be easily converted into improvised runways for military aircraft.
Great video, but you failed to mention I-476 as being part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Don't worry, half their modern pictures and both service plazas were from the NE Extension.
The toll takers were a casualty of covid. Before that, there were Easy Pass only lanes and cash lanes when you got off.
8:22 Ryan George reference noticed and appreciated :D
in the late 90s early 00's I drove that alot to visit my late sister & her kids, it was nice if you were going outside pa east to west.
So I learnt something today.
I live near Pittsburgh and when my mom and i would come home from Rehoboth Beach, Breezewood meant we were almost home. I always wondered if anyone actually lived in Breezewood or was it only hotels and restaurants.
in 2016 I was in my 33' motorhome driving Florida to Maine and back twice, the PA turnpike was my 2nd least liked roadway................the Boston area was the worst.
Toads Turnpike is my least favourite. Maybe because I drove against traffic.
Native Americans have been traveling from coast to coast since time and memoerial. There are plenty of books showing how Native Americans traverse North and South America before Columbus arrival.
I was born in PA and live in VA Beach. This video speaks to me
The only issue is the cost! Even more if you don’t have EZ-Pass.
Right when you said "accoutrements" I was thinking "Not even in Lovecraft". (I had to look up the spelling).
That explains why it's full of potholes and always under construction.
Potholes? I drive the Turnpike from Philly to Pittsburgh about once a month for the last 4 years. It's easily the best maintained major roadway PA. Maybe it costs and arm and a leg but atleast it's taken care of.
The least popular thing about the turnpike is Breezewood.
a little less snark would go a long way to help telling the story of our nation's first highway.
oh, you still can park on the westbound shoulder and climb the stairs to the bridge over the TPK to get to St Johns
The widening project going on right now took them out.
Almost $250 for a big truck from one end to the other.
8:24 references are tight
I use the word accoutrements.
@3:50 lol the Pensi
I never drive it east to west at night! Even though i know it end to end 😂😂 oh and i dont play about trucks. its their road. They just let me drive on it!
May ss well rename this channel to Americagraphics
I was wondering about this .
8:24 Oh really!?!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
14:55 to be fair Hershey Park wasnt rly a thing yet.
Sooooo many of your modern pictures of the "Turnpike" were actually of the Northeast Extention. Those are not the same roadway. Most notably, the service plazas like Hickory Run, and Allentown are service plazas on the Northeast Extention not the PA Turnpike.
1st 'superhighway'...Its interesting bcuz major parts of Hwy 41 (a major North-South interstate hwy) existed back into the 1910s/20s. I guess I'd wonder difference between Hwy and 'superhighway' is? Bcuz there were Hwy's between Chicago/Milwaukee and other areas that were 'major economic cooridors'.
What happen to Simon
He left over 12+ months ago.
He's on Astrographics and MegaProjects.
lets talk about Act 44
And one of the worst in the country. Going from NJ over the border to PA is like day and night. Worst roads in the whole country, constantly under construction with no end in sight.
I moved to NJ from TX. Lived there for 7 years and people always complained about the roads. Moves to PA 2 years ago and hit a pothole on 476, going 70 mph. That was not fun. Went through 4 tires, hitting so many potholes. I couldn't believe it
22:00 I'm sorry, what??? Left.... exit....????
I’ve been gone for a minute so tell me, what happened to the British guy lol?
I miss Simon
US freaking 50 pulling a 30ft horse trailer during the damnedable yardsale on memorial day. Nearly turned so many idiots into chunky salsa getting from Vernon to Bedford. Just idiots screeching to a stop in front of you barely getting off the road and running across the road to a yardsale.
I'm watching from Virginia Beach.
In 2034 the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel will be bypassed. The first Tunnel to be twined in the 1960s and because it's not in great shape and not safe on the eastern side. Absolute bs. They just rehabilitated the Tuscarora Mountain Tunnel for $470 million and they're going to cut down trees and tear the environment down to Bypass a tunnel that's been there for 100 years.
1:05 Won’t be watching any further if you don’t even know there are no bison in Pennsylvania. Or east of the Mississippi. There’s no way there aren’t many more errors in this if this is how low it’s starting from a minute in. 🤢
There used to be bison in the East. We wiped them out. Why do you think Buffalo NY is named Buffalo? Bison in the East were slightly smaller than their Western counterparts and were present from NY to FL.
What did I miss, where is Simon
Its always under construction, it...will always be under construction 😮💨😮💨😮💨😮💨😮💨
There are other geographic locations apart from the USA. I miss the time that this channel diversified it's content. One in every 4 or 5 videos does not constitute content diversity. And I miss Simon.
Mah ka dem not mak a dem 😊