1953 - Pennsylvania Turnpike Tunnels- improved video
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- For all you tunnel fanatics out there!
This version has better color and detail than the one I uploaded a year ago. The music ought to sound familiar to most baby boomers. Originally shot on 16mm film. The tunnels appear much, much darker than they really were - the film was formulated for shooting in daylight and wasn't sensitive enough to pick up the dimmed light of the tunnels' interiors.
Some of these tunnels are no longer in service - portions of the turnpike were rerouted during the 1960s and their tunnels abandoned. Today they're enjoyed by hikers and bikers.
Notice that in 1953 all these tunnels had only one tube, through which ran traffic in both directions. Today every working tunnel has two tubes, one for each direction.
There's many more of Grandpa's movies on my channel - please visit! Also visit www.webnik.com/...
Little did my grandparents know when they made this little movie in 1953 that it would be receiving all this appreciation today! Somewhere up there, they must be smiling.
Agreed!! Thanks for letting us join it too!
I'm 64 and I remember these tunnels. We moved from Benton, Illinois to Salisbury Delaware around 1957. Every summer we would drive back to Il for a 2 week vacation. The tunnels were wonderful, always looked forward to them. I remember once we drove into a tunnel, the weathered was nice, bright and sunny. When we came out the other end, it was pouring rain. So cool! Thank-you so much for these films, I have enjoyed them so much!
According to my dad, Grandpa was always a loyal Buick customer, and he changed cars every few years, so in all likelihood he and Grandma were driving a Buick model from the early 1950's. Thanks for enjoying the ride!
You have done something very nice with Grandpa's films. it is historical footage of tunnels and roads now in most cases by passed. The older cars are fun to see again. and that is how it was.
They were actually better illuminated than it appears. The film that Grandpa used was formulated for use in either bright exterior sunlight or with interior flood lamps. The lighting inside the tunnels wasn't as strong as either, so it was barely exposed onto the film.
I grew up going to NJ every summer and the highlight of the trip along the PA Turnpike was the tunnels. Sure brings back memories.
Gosh, the light 1953 traffic makes it look so easy to merge gracefully into one lane as you go into each tunnel. Not like ten years later! Thanks for posting this--this is a great perspective!
I remembered as a kindergartener seeing the "horrible" traffic on the Northeast Extension at the Lehigh Tunnel before the Turnpike Commission bored the second (southbound) tube back in the late '80s/early '90s. After that, going to the mountains in Columbia County entailed going up PA 100 to PA 309 (formerly U.S. 309), then from PA 309 to I-81 north of Tamaqua, and then north on PA 93 from I-81 at Hazelton.
Your Grandpa (and Grandma) did great! Loved the footage of the as-built tunnels with the bonus of all the vintage automobiles. Thanks for posting this wonderful peek into the ever-distancing past.
Absolutely loved that! It would have been the way that my parents first saw the Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels at about the same time in the early 50s. They talked about the tunnels like they were the Eighth Wonder. I remember being excited to go through them myself as a kid. Awesome! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
This was 40 years before I was born but I like seeing a footage of these tunnels before they were abandoned and really like the music I always come back to this video to listen to the music and seeing those older cars on the road
This video is a gift for fans of infrastructure history, highways included, and I believe your grandpa and grandma were and are very special persons. Thanks for posting this lovely memory for us.
This film interests me much more today than it did when you first posted this. In the past three years, I've driven through three of the tunnels many times, and I have also walked through Sideling Hill and Ray's Hill tunnels. I really like seeing the approach and departure from those two tunnels, after trying to figure out what they looked like in the past as I stood there in the present.
Awesome! We just hiked two of those tunnels on foot :)
Awesome! So cool to see them functional!
Holy carp. That's surreal.
I think I wouldn't mind doing that someday. I'm 63 now so someday sooner then later!!
Our family vacation, in 1962, took us through all 7(?) tunnels in our '54 Chevy. My fathers name was Ray, & we though it was funny to go through "Ray's" Hill!
Yes, all seven tunnels were still in use in 1962. We drove through all of them that summer and I counted them. I could have sworn that the Laurel Hill tunnel had a sharp right hand turn just inside the west portal, but looking at maps, it was a straight bore.
Last spring we rode our bikes on the abandoned section including the Ray's Hill and Sideling tunnels. We tried to envision what it all looked like back in the day. So glad I stumbled upon your video! It's fantastic!
What a marvelous contribution to fans of vintage travel videos. My great-grandparents lived in Wilmerding on State Street. I remember the Tuscarora Tunnel very well. What a spooky experience for me as a child. What a test of my Dad's driving skills through that dark tunnel.
Last Sunday, I was standing inside the Sideling Hill Tunnel. What a treat to see it in its heyday. Thank you, Robert and Grandpa!
Thanks for posting. My parents and I made the trip from Phila. to Pittsburgh many times in the 50s and early 60s, in our 53 Chevy, 57 Chevy, and 60 Chevy.
I am sitting here crying as I have just finished watching this and I am not sure what is making me do so.
Is it the beautiful old cars?
Is it the beautiful rendition of 'Holiday for Strings' playing softly in the background?
Is it that gorgeous scenery?
It could be the picture quality of the film that stirs this longing for times now past?
I guess it is a combination of all these things......
I love these "every day life" old movies. Really is like looking through a window in time. Thanks for sharing!
David Rose -- perfect music for a 1950s turnpike film.
I agree
Wow, this is really cool. I didn't know Pennsylvania Turnpike had tunnels back then. I do remember "Holiday for Strings" though.
i'd just like to thank you for posting this. I visit the abandoned tunnels often and appreciate the history and nostalgia
I come across this video again every few years, this is such a great snapshot of history... the fact there is a Studebaker in it makes it even better! As I recall from another clip the Studebaker was owned by the posters parents.
Great film, your Grandparents were way ahead of their time! My girl and I are heading out to Pittsburgh this weekend and plan a stop at the abandoned section and this video helped put things into perspective.
I learned of the Abandoned Turnpike back in 2006. Long before thousands more have since learned of it. I myself studied up and researched videos if it on You tube and google searches for 5 years learning all I could and finally figured out from a webpage by Brian Troutman. As for you tube videos. Your video was one of the early ones I found and I still come back to watch it and enjoy it even 14 years later.
The Sideling Hill Tunnel is right up the road from me. Very cool stuff. The Film The Road had some scenes filmed there also.
That drive is just as scenic today as it was back then!
This was really cool to see! Recently hiked the now Pike2Bike trail for the Rays Hill & Sideling Hill tunnels and wondered what they were like while in service. This really helps see what they were like!
so a couple of those tunnels have been abandoned since the 60's. i've watched a lot of footage about them here lately. they're so run down and shitty looking now...it's so AWESOME to see it back in the day with all the hussle and bussle of cars going through them.
A great video record of the turnpike in its original state. This is a fantastic trip down memory lane for those of us that traveled the pike prior to 1968. Too bad we don't have the complete original 160 miles on film. Thanks for the video!
How do I get to these sections of the pike?
Where are you coming from?
@@brianjames4169 the section of Turnpike that was filmed was between the Carlisle Interchange (U.S. 11 & I-81) and the Breezewood Interchange (I-70 East & U.S. 30). Bear in mind that both the Rays Hill and Sideling Hill Tunnels are now abandoned, both being bypassed in 1968, however a small portion of the old alignment still exists as the Breezewood Interchange. In addition to the above-mentioned tunnels, the Laurel Hill Tunnel near New Stanton (I-70 West) is also abandoned and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has plans of bypassing the Allegheny Mountain Tunnels within the next 10 years.
@@rwboa22
Wow. Are there any scenic areas there which will be lost to the driving public? I’d like to hike those abandoned areas on foot or on bike sometime if possible. Stokes my interest big time. Thank you for your response too btw. Much appreciated and very interesting if I may say. You ROCK!!!
This was a year after I was born. It was a gentler, happier and a more simple time. It felt better then, than now. We were always thinking there was a brighter and better future ahead. The music even makes me feel that way again. Today, I fear, our technology, our attitude toward others will do us in as a country; maybe even the world. I so miss that feeling of hope we had instead of this present feeling of doom on many levels.
It's eerie to watch this video, after watching other videos of these same locations today, most of which are left abandoned, slowly being reclaimed by the woods. These are just about as spooky as coming across an old abandoned railroad.
Very cool to see these tunnels in their former glory! I've been on the turnpike and thru breezwood a bunch of times but just recently found out about the abandoned road and tunnels there. Very interesting
Rode through the tunnels in 1950, at age 3. Still remember doing it! Very exciting for a little kid. Thanks for posting such a great memory. Excellent quality film for the time, and perfect music, too.
That's a right smart movin' picture show your Grand-Pap made. All my thumbs up for this one. Thanks!
I love this! Amazing footage and the music compliments it so well. Thanks for sharing.
Too, too cool. I have many memories of childhood Thanksgiving treks westward from the Philadelphia area to Uniontown via the PA Turnpike and a fascination with the 5 twin tunnels (dating myself). It's amazing to watch this footage and I hope to make my first trek to the abandoned portion this summer. Thanks for the thrill!
After seeing videos of this road, tunnels now abandoned...it was great to see them when they were young, beautiful and being used!! Thanks to grandpa filming his historic adventures!!
They used a darn good camera, most of that era were nearly always slightly out of focus.
You bet! And would you believe that their camera was powered entirely by a wind-up spring? I should add that it wasn't just the camera they used, it was also the 16mm Kodachrome film inside - it had a twice the resolution of the 8mm and Super8 film that came later.
And because of the lighting in the tunnels, the pictures would be so poor, the operator was best served not to waste the film by shooting in there; the stuff was rather expensive.
that's amazing and very cool info thanks for sharing this
i love old highways!....its too bad this stretch is abandoned and forgotten today....EXCELENT vid.
When I was a small child, we took an auto trip to see my father's family in Pittsburgh and those old tunnels were really dark!
That is just a great piece of film history you have there and it's wonderful that it survived all these years. It's great that your grandparents had the sense of mind to film it and to not miss any of the tunnel entrances or exits. It's especially nice that two of the three bypassed tunnels are shown here, so that one can see them as they once were. Good job with the new uploaded version.
This video is GREAT! I was out to see the abandoned 13 mile section and the two abandoned tunnels (Rays Hill & Sideling Hill) twice. Each time I walked that old busted up road, I imagined in my mind a scene identical to what I see in your video....old cars whizzing by - - old music playing----on a carefree Sunday afternoon in the 1950s. Your grandparents were brilliant to have filmed this in '53!
Yes. Performed by that quintessential middlebrow orchestra, The Boston Pops. From my late Grandparents' record collection, appropriately enough!
May your Grandparents Rest In Peace. God bless their souls for all eternity.
I just went to Sideling Hill Tunnel today and was wondering what it looked like in its prime. Thanks!!!
That's awesome Ty for the video.. Much appreciated..me an my wife went there few years back not knowing much about got late..we walked One tunnel it seems it never ended an turned back.. Didn't have lights or anything
He drove through the Sideling Hill tunnel which is now abandoned. Very cool to see it in use.
The approach to the "Ray's Hill" tunnel that starts around 1:51 is the same abandoned portal seen in the movie "The Road".
I liked that. Your grandparents were pretty savvy. There's a lot of tunnels, and the light poles... Good idea. Thank you.
Just imagine if the tunnels had not been twinned. The PA Turnpike is already a pain during daylight hours in the summer as it is. LOL
a couple of the railroad-built tunnels were never twinned- it was cheaper to bypass them. so imagine what it was like when a vehicle died or caught fire in those single-lane tunnels. no where to go and nothing to do but wait. those tunnels can still be entered on bike paths, but they are about 125 years old and i say "keep out if you like breathing". what they should do is run a cell phone antenna system thru those tunnels to provide some measure of emergency security and communications. if a collapse traps people in there, they may not be able to get help with their phones. why hasn't this been done??
Backups were reportedly five miles or more in the early '60's; that's what spurred the Turnpike Commission to drill the new tunnels they did and bypass the others. They're now looking to bypass the Allegheny Mountain dual tunnel because traffic's backing up. But it was still better than either US 22 or 30.
This is a real piece of history. Thanks for posting it.
I don't remember seeing that many tunnels, when I traveled the Penn Pike back in the 70's there were 4 tunnels the last one was the Wheeling tunnel, I did not see it in this video.
Great memories, 20 years before I went there.
The Wheeling Tunnel is in West Virginia, about 75 miles west of the Turnpike along I-70. 70 is part of the Turnpike from New Stanton, southeast of Pittsburgh, to Breezewood, where it goes south into Maryland and ends in Baltimore.
Cool film. I like the perspective of it being 1953!! And good music!!
I was born in 1960. We lived near NY city, and used to travel the turnpike from Carlisle to Bedford quite often to see our relatives out in Windber / Johnstown, Pa. I loved the trip and the tunnels as a kid, and still remember that once we passed through Rays Hill before they bypassed it, we were about an hour to Windber. Nice memories. Thanks.
Thanks so much for this. While I have to admit I'm old enough that I should remember the tunnels being 2 ways--I don't, and to this day it's mind boggling that they were even two lanes at all. My brother and I were just talking the other day how we should've remembered the old turnpike when we took our big trip to DC in 1967.
+Janet Carbone I think by 67 the last two tunnels were bypassed, they are part of what is now the abandoned PA Turnpike. When I was a kid we went though all of these at least a few times, and I do recall on one trip thinking there weren't as many tunnels as I remembered, now I know why.
+Jeff DeWitt The only tunnel that had been twin-bored in 1967 was Allegheny Mountain. All the others were still single bore. We drove through them 49 years ago today - April 15, 1967.
Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill were bypassed in late 1968. They were still in use that summer when we drove through PA on the turnpike.
Im a PA truck driver..so this video is outstanding....
Cool to see a portion of the Abandoned Turnpike with the automobile traffic!
Thanks for the great video! I just compared your footage to google maps street view and an abandoned pa turnpike video. Really cool to see the differences. It was filmed by your grandparents for one reason and watched by us for another. That's what makes it so amazing!
Thanks for the opportunity to go back in time with you and your grandparents on a virtual ride through the original Pennsylvania Turnpike Tunnels.
we had a '53 (w/6 volts) for a few years, and as long as the battery was charged, never any problems. There's actually a 6v alternator available to install for orignal 6v cars that keep the electrical system more reliable
Jesus, your grandfather was pretty active with the camera. Thank god for his existence.
I remember those tunnels from my Michigan summer trips..
This is amazing. Can I have permission to use a clip from this video for an upcoming video on my other channel? I will give full credit to you. Thanks
CLAWBOSS!!
Didn’t expect to see you here!
Great video. A piece of America has been preserved. By the 1960's there was so much more traffic on the pike that they had to upgrade the tunnels. Glad that I got to ride through them as a kid.
Excellent preservation of Highway history! You are and your grandparents are / were true custodians of this time period. I’ve biked two of those bypassed tunnels (Rays Hill and Sideling) many decades later, Great to see it them when they were still active!
Yeah, I agree. You want to preserve it.
Say, Mountain...my relatives live in Lewistown and that area has changed a lot just within the past ten years. I-99 and the new road through the Narrows east of town is gonna make a big difference especially in the winter.
Take care.
This is great. Thank you for sharing. One of the things that popped into my head was my dad was just a baby, not even a year old and my mom wasn't even born yet.
Perfect choice of music!
Love the video and especially the accompanying music! :-) Just biked on the abandoned stretch for the third time. It is quite an experience.
As the now abandoned Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill tunnels - let alone the abandoned stretch of PA Turnpike between them - are among the world's most remarkable highway artifacts, I was truly thrilled to see this footage of them them taken roughly fifteen years before they were bypassed. Walk inside them today, and it's like hiking inside a bell, the echo is so overpowering!
Pretty cool footage. I travel the turnpike and pass through the tunnels on a regular basis. It’s interesting to recognize the curves and tunnel faces, though I think the curve on the east side entrance of one of the tunnels was changed a few years back. I forget which one it was though.
StuffYouCanDo2 how do you “travel the turnpike and the tunnels on a regular basis”? They’ve been abandoned and closed since 1968...
I loved watching that blue `51 Studebaker in front of the car doing the filming! Those were the days! Thank you for uploading this!!
I love road construction. I'll never forget the first by-pass project. I didn't realize what had happened until the second or third time. I lived in New Jersey and we traveled the Turnpike a lot.
Awesome video!! I remember going through those tunnels as a child back in '64 right before Laurel Hill{mountain} tunnel closed and Rays Hill and Sideling Hill in '68. I would not call them hills. I just wonder how cheaper it has been to keep those bypasses open in the PA winters when you build a stupid bypass on top of three mountains. I drove the PA turnpike in the winter in the late 70's and it was no picnic on top of those mountain tunnel bypasses. You had snow, fog, ice fog and sleet. I am sure it is the same today!!
Travelled the beautiful 'PENNA TURN-PIKE' (so the signs read) once a year to Grandma's. Always turned south at Breezewood. We were stuck in a long traffic jam about xmas '69, began around the Allegheny tunnel through to Breezewood, due to the bypass being closed. Got to Grandma's after midnight instead of about 7 pm, very lucky we made it at all, it was a serious snowstorm. Weather forecasting has improved a great deal since then.
Thank for posting this, I was amazed by the traffic volume compared with now. I also enjoyed seeing the F-8 Ford tractor-trailer exiting the eastbound portal of The Blue Mountain Tunnel much like the F-8 that my late Father drive when he started out driving trucks. My only disappointment was that Allegheny Mountain Tunnel wasn't in the video. I heard that Alleghany Mountain was close to an hour climb in those days.
This video should probably have a million views by now
Actually 108,402 - but hey, a tenth of a million ain't bad!
thank u for throwing this up on here.
Damn all them old hotrods :) What a difference, So many cars on the road now !!!
Thank you so much for posting this! I was looking exactly for something like this that was vintage so I could see the actual cars driving on the now abandoned turnpike and tunnels. Excellent! And great choice of music with this video.
As a young kid in the early 1950s, my grandparents took me to Ohio (from Maryland) via the Pa. Turnpike, almost every year to visit relatives. I recall some of those old tunnels, as well as the road signs saying "falling rocks," deer crossing." etc. Seeing your home movie of the tunnels and the cars of that time was great,
"Holiday For Strings" … perfect choice of music for this!!! Only 4 of the original 7 tunnels are in use today.
wow really cool video..shows parts of the abandoned turnpike
AWESOME TRANSFER FROM MOVIE FILM...I LOVE IT. SOMEDAY I HOPE TO BIKE RIDE THE ROUTE MYSELF. LOOKS LIKE FUN.
I've been through the active tunnels countless times, have visited the Rays Hill & Sideling Hill Tunnels on a few occasions (I've gone through the Rays Hill easily, Sideling Hill I wouldn't recommend due to its length), and have even pulled over near the 99 mile marker to check out the western portal of the Laurel Hill Tunnel. (Judging by the film, your grandparents either got off at Breezewood, Bedford, or simply ran out of film.) As for the active tunnels featured in the film, the Blue Mountain and Kittatinny Tunnels use the original tunnels for westbound traffic today while the Tuscarora uses the original tunnel for eastbound traffic, with the respective newer tunnels having traffic going the other way.
Fast forward 50 years later, we might be seeing another bypass soon. The PTC is supposed to decide this year on the fate of the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel, whether a third or even fourth tunnel will be bored, or if it will be bypased by a rock cut a la Laurel Hill.
www.paturnpike.com/constructionprojects/allegtunn/
Update: Allegheny Mountain will be replaced soon.
www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2014/12/24/Pennsylvania-Turnpike-considers-plans-to-replace-tunnels-in-Somerset-County/stories/201412230034
Cool video...and i see my father's car at 1:31. The tunnels back then were amazing. It's so sad to see what they look like today.
"...Never hear such lovely music 🎶 🎵 "
Greetings from New York! My Grandparents did film a few other sequences of vintage car traffic. None of them are as extensive as this one, but I'm sure you'd enjoy them. I'll digitize them eventually - right now I can't afford it. Damn this financial crisis!
Just walked the Sideling Hill tunnel this week! Of course it was hot as can be outside! And it's the longest of all seven tunnels. Didn't have enough energy to make Ray's Hill tunnel. As for the Laurel Hill tunnel, it's being used by a NASCAR team for testing.
THANKS much for the great video! Just as I remember many trips east through the tunnels - the BIG event of vacation travel in our '53 Chevy Belair! Brings back many memories - almost like being in the car, looking over Dad's shoulder again as we approached each tunnel! Thanks for taking the time to do this!
wow this is simply amazing, a piece of history captured so well, we just got back from a family bike ride, im putting together a short video and would love to incorporate parts of this video throughout if that would be ok
Yes, you may. Please let me know when it's online. Rob
+Robert Martens will do, thank it's greatly appreciated
+Robert Martens this is Will, just got the video up. I created a new channel with hopes of this being the first of many adventures. I have tried in the past uploading similar content on my Auto repair channel, later to find very little activity. understandably so, see how this goes. thanks again bud. hope you enjoy
Wow! Very enjoyable!!!Thank you Walt!!! Jo
neat posting willie , to see the cars from the late 40s and 50s was something and good music
TY SIS. INTERRESTING. HUGS LATER 🐎🌷🌷🌷🌷🐎🐎🐎
tunnel of love was missing
george miller only u haaa
yes lady nanny boo boo
Driving while filming with no seatbelts. What could possibly go wrong?
Just kidding. Love this video.
The entrances to the tunnels were sketchy! Could you imagine them with today's traffic?
+Jason Thompson forget the traffic, going directly into the dark is very dangerous when it's day
Ya know today in 2017 you still have to drive signal lane only if there is maintenance work in the tunnels
Very dangerous
That is why they changed the tunnels and bypassed 3 in the 60s.
We been passing there. Seeing this old video so amazing.
So very cool... and sad. We just biked Rays Hill Tunnel last weekend. It's so grown up, and the eastbound lane has been reduced to rubble. The next trip in a few weeks will encompass both Sideling and Rays Hill Tunnels. I love this video, though. The PATP in all its glory
If my memory serves me correctly, these tunnels were originally constructed to carry tracks of the potentially defunct South Pennsylvania railroad, to compete with the PRR to the north. Roadbed was built but I believe construction stopped before any rails were laid..
I just hiked the Ray's Hill tunnel today. Kind of creepy and it's fascinating looking at my pictures from today and the same views from 1953.
I was in the tunnel oct 25th. loved it.
I've always wanted to do that. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is literally in my backyard!
Awesome video thanks for that I love seeing all the old school cars and what not
Laurel, Rays and Sideling have all been bypassed, the other 4 are still in use.