Pennsylvania Turnpike before the 1968 tunnel twinning- a modern “what was it like?”
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- We’re going to start with a short intro of coming off of the abandoned section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike from the eastern end of the sideling hill tunnel which they did not twin. With recent construction you get a strong idea of what it was like going through a single portal tunnel prior to the “twinning” of them in 1968. The traffic back ups during holidays were awful.
I took many naps in that pull off when the video started in fact I have been napping their for 43 years
I have too , not nearly as many as you though!
It's no picnic driving one of those semis through there. I do it on a fairly regular basis.
It WAS indeed "hairy" driving single file a few short feet from oncoming tractor trailers. The tunnels in the 1950s and early 1960s did not have white ceramic tile walls or ceilings, either: Black and smoky concrete with orange lights, probably sodium vapor bulbs. And then there was the exhaust smoke ....
Just drove through these tunnels last weekend going home to NJ after a few days in Ohio. We took I-80 the way there due to the lack of tolls, but I wanted to see the tunnels on the way back. It is definitely strange having a mountain right in front of you instead of winding around it.
My family traveled on the PennTurnpike in the late 60s/early 70s on summer vacation. One of the things I remember was, the only “stops” along the way were an Exxon gas station and a Howard Johnson restaurant. HoJo’s fried clams were the best on the planet! Sure miss those days. 😢
Wow! That was something I didn't think about when one lane closes for construction.
Not to mention though the original tunnels had less lights and no tiles on the walls to help reflect light. But the walks were white concrete at least.
Thank you for this video of what the Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels were like in the old days. While your video certainly gives a good idea of what it was like before a second tube was added in the late 1960s, the single Turnpike tunnels were even more primitive than that.
I grew up on Long Island, and my parents were originally from Pittsburgh, so each summer my parents would pile us five kids into the car and drive to Pittsburgh on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to visit the extended family. There were seven two-lane, single two-way tunnels then. That single tunnel was not nearly as brightly lit as the current ones are and did not have tiled walls. In fact, they were a little more than bare concrete tubes with individual bright spotlights embedded in the ceiling, alternating between the two lanes of the tunnel. This made the tunnels incredibly dark and scary.
Nevertheless, all of us kids would get excited when we were driving on the open Turnpike, and we saw cars coming from the opposite direction with their headlights on because that meant a tunnel was coming up. when we got to a tunnel, my dad would white-knuckle it through while my mom was grasping tightly to the armrest on her door on the passenger side. Meanwhile, the five of us kids in the back of the station wagon with all the seats down on carpet remnants were laughing and rolling around whenever the car swayed back and forth as each 18-wheeler zoomed toward from the opposite direction, our combined speed about 130 miles an hour, creating a shockwave that rocked our car back and forth. Needless to say, by the time we got to our Uncle Bud and Aunt Cleo’s house in Pittsburgh, our dad and mom both needed a beer while the five of us kids felt like we had been to a really cool amusement park.
As much as I appreciate the addition of a second tube, and the brighter lighting to the Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels, I still really cherish and miss that childhood adventure.
The lanes were narrower then. After the 2nd tunnels were completed, the original tunnels were closed for a while so they could be widened and modernized.
Something else to add: Right at the eastbound exit of the tunnel pair, the Turnpike re-aligned the roadway so the exit curve wasn't as sharp. That was about 10 years ago. It used to be viewable in Streetview. Somewhere between 2005-2008, they also straightened out some of the curves on the westbound side of the Allegheny tunnels. Both of the old alignments are viewable in Google Earth.
It was fun when traffic was light, weather was good, and the car could handle the curves and the speed, not so fun when one of those conditions was removed (which was most common).
For sure
Remember as a kid riding in our station wagon eastbound below Allegheny. The sign says "Curves" but didn't explain the curves were tighter. Remember being somewhat in terror as the semis flew past us & it felt like we were going faster than safe. Semi jake brakes weren't common then so it was either unsafely fast or crawling along I guess.
The grade and curves east from Allegheny were steeper and sharper than anywhere else on the Turnpike - I think you got that backwards. Western side was never an issue iirc.
I’m always curious which tube was the original when I drive the PA Turnpike tunnels.
While I can't say for sure, when I approach any of the twinned tunnels, I look at the slope of the land as it rises from the side of the tunnel. I'm assuming that the land near the original tube is shallower while the one near the new tube is steeper since they would have had to dig into sloping land that had already been established. And I've found that that does seem to be consistent on either end of the twin tunnels. I have no idea if that's accurate or not, but that's my thought.
Cool. Enjoyed the trip!!
I made a video going this way exactly the way you went through. But I only filmed the Blue Mountain Tunnel.
Cool video! Thank you!❤
Nice 👌 thanx for sharing 👍
It was worse back then... The lanes were NARROWER than they are today in the revamped tunnels.
The other side is narrower!