On April 23, 1935, Patterson introduced a bill in the State House to authorize a feasibility study for the new road. He was the only sponsor. But, the Associated Press picked up on the story and reporter David Fernsler began transmitting dispatches on the proposed "weather-proof tunnel highway."
The rest, as they say, is history. What legend suggests began as a late night dinner conversation that winter night in 1934 became America's first superhighway, the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Early promotional material billed the Pennsylvania Turnpike as the "tunnel highway" because the roadway ran through seven tunnels as it traversed the mountainous terrain between Carlisle and Irwin, Pennsylvania.
Initially, planners proposed nine tunnels. But, Quemahoning and Negro mountains near Somerset were both by-passed and seven tunnels made it from the drawing board to construction.
When the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened for business on October 1, 1940, it included two-lane tunnels at Laurel Hill, Allegheny, Ray's Hill, Sideling Hill, Tuscarora, Kittatinny and Blue Mountain. Rapidly increasing traffic volumes, far surpassing anything anticipated by early Turnpike planners, soon made the two-lane tunnels obsolete and prompted consideration of by-passing or "double tunneling" the seven original tunnels.
After exhaustive studies, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission decided to construct new parallel tunnels at Blue Mountain, Kittatinny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain and Allegheny Mountain. The decision was made to by-pass the Ray's Hill, Sideling Hill and Laurel Hill tunnels.
William K. Vanderbilt, king pin of the New York Central Railroad, and industrial baron Andrew Carnegie dreamed of building an east-west railroad across southern Pennsylvania to compete with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Over $10 million dollars was spent and 26 lives lost when the unfinished project was halted in 1886.
The Laurel Hill Tunnel near Donegal was one of the nine tunnels which were partly completed during construction of the ill-fated South Penn Railroad. Workers had bored through 813 feet of solid rock at the Laurel Hill site and had built some of the approach grades when work stopped. Over the next 50 years, the site became a nesting place for snakes and rats as water partly filled the tunnel. After Governor George H. Earle signed an Act on May 21, 1937 establishing the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Laurel Hill Tunnel got a new lease on life. A contract for $1,578,493.00 was awarded to Hunkin-Conkley, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio and the tunnel was extended another 3,555 feet. Traffic began flowing through Laurel Hill when the Turnpike opened on October 1, 1940. But, the tunnel's days were numbered. On August 7, 1962, the Latrobe Construction Company began cutting a new four-lane bypass through Laurel Hill and on October 30, 1964, the tunnel was again abandoned.
The actual cut which carried the Turnpike through Laurel Hill is one of the deepest highway cuts in the eastern United States at 145 feet. Construction crews removed 5.5 million cubic yards of material in digging the cut.
Like their counterpart to the west, the Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill tunnels were part of the South Penn Railroad's initial efforts to establish a transportation link across Pennsylvania.
By the early 1960's, the York, Pennsylvania engineering firm of Buchart-Horn was called upon to study the traffic bottleneck at the two tunnels and recommended a 13.1 mile bypass that included reconstruction and relocation of the Breezewood Interchange and construction of a new east-west service plaza (Sideling Hill). The by-pass replaced 13 miles of the original Turnpike, so it did not add significantly to the length of the superhighway.
The Sideling Hill By-pass, completed at a cost of $17,203,000, opened on November 26, 1968, sending both the Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill tunnels into retirement. Portions of the vacated highway and the tunnels themselves still exist today and are used by the Turnpike for testing and research.
The closing of the Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill tunnels in 1968 left just four of the seven original Turnpike tunnels in operation. A fifth tunnel, the Lehigh Tunnel on the Northeastern Extension which had opened on November 7, 1957, now constitute the Turnpike's tunnel system.
All five existing Turnpike tunnels began as two-lane tunnels. Through the course of their history, companion tunnels have been built alongside the original facilities to accommodate the Turnpike's four lanes.
The Allegheny Tunnel was the only one of the original seven tunnels to be built in its entirety by Turnpike construction crews. There was a tunnel started in the mountain by the South Penn Railroad, but it was never completed. Water seepage in the original railroad tunnel caused the ceiling to crumble and parts of the tunnel filled with rock. Engineers decided to build a brand new tunnel 85 feet south and parallel to the old tunnel. It was built at a cost of $2,672,188.
By the late 1950's, the need for a second tunnel had become apparent. The second tunnel was built at a cost of $8,237,272 and contained many modern features -- such as fluorescent lighting and powerful ventilating systems -- which were not available in 1940. The older tunnel was renovated to include those systems at a cost of $3,460,934. The Allegheny tunnels, at 6,070 feet in length, are the longest tunnels still utilized by the Turnpike. (The decommissioned Sideling Hill Tunnel is 6,782 feet long.)
By 1996, Turnpike officials had once again begun to consider the status of the aging original Allegheny Tunnel. Turnpike engineers are currently in the process of determining whether to upgrade and rehabilitate, by-pass or build a new Allegheny Tunnel.
Work on the Blue Mountain and Kittatinny Mountain tunnels in Franklin County just west of Carlisle posed special environmental challenges. The short valley between the two tunnels is in the Shippensburg Water Authority's prime watershed. As a result, tunneling was carried out from only one end of each of the tunnels.
The second Blue Mountain and Kittatinny Mountain tunnels, along with the additional Tuscorara Mountain tunnel on the Franklin/Huntingdon county border, all opened to the motoring public on November 26, 1968. The Blue Mountain tunnel is, at 4,339 feet in length, the shortest tunnel currently in operation. (The closed 3,532 foot long Ray's Hill Tunnel is the shortest of the original seven tunnels.)
The last remaining two-lane tunnel on the Turnpike was the Lehigh Tunnel on the Northeastern Extension. Work got underway on the $37 million second Lehigh Tunnel with groundbreaking ceremonies on February 14, 1989. On June 13, 1990, crews working from both ends of the mountain "holed through" and completed their work by November 22, 1991, when the new Lehigh Tunnel opened for business.
The new Lehigh Tunnel is 4,380 feet long. The tunnel's opening was historic because for the first time there was a four-lane highway the entire 506-mile length of the Pennsylvania Turnpike system.
From 1930's wire dispatches to the opening of the second Lehigh Tunnel, tunnels have been an integral and interesting part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In mid-1997, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission adopted a 12-year capital expenditures plan which calls for continued upgrading and rehabilitation of the Turnpike's tunnels, ensuring safe, efficient travel for Turnpike motorists well into the 21st Century.
Before the first crude turnpike was constructed in 1814, the 300 mile trip between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh took up to 35 days to complete. Foul weather wreaked havoc on dirt pathways, thus travelers were always at the mercy of the weather.
Early in the 19th century, Westmoreland County Associate Justice Colonel John Irwin, recognizing the need for a structured roadway, assisted in creating the Pittsburgh to Greensburg Turnpike. The roadway ran through Adamsburg, Strawpump, past the Colonel's home on Brush Hill Road in Irwin, as well as his brother's house on Verdant Drive, then through Jacksonville (Jacktown), Circleville and Turtle Creek.
A turnpike (or pike) is a long pole that straddles the roadway in order to block travelers from gaining access without paying. After fees were collected, the gateman turned the key, lifted one end of the pole, and allowed traffic to enter the turnpike.
Tolls were earmarked to pay for grading the dirt road and building simple wooden bridges that enabled customers to cross streams. In order to make swampy areas passable, logs were cut and laid across the road.
In 1817, the popular toll road was expanded to reach from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. (It is speculated that the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Turnpike was located in approximately the same area as the current Lincoln Highway, Route 30.)
Carriages and riders on horseback were not the only patrons of the simplistic roadway. Customers on foot as well as sheep herders and their flocks utilized this new and improved pathway that spanned across Pennsylvania. Turnpike fees varied from 6-cents per score (twenty animals) of sheep or hogs, and 12-cents for every score of cattle, to carts and wagons whose wheels exceeded 8-inches in breadth having free access (see rate schedule).
Travelers who could afford to pay $20.00 had the option of hiring a stagecoach for their east/west journeys. Coaches held up to nine passengers and were pure luxury transportation in the 19th century. The rich interiors were lined with velvet and iron springs gave customers a smoother ride than buggies and wagons. Coach drivers, who earned 37-cents per 12-hour day, changed teams of horses approximately every ten miles. The drivers and travelers took breaks at roadside inns that were located along the route.
Even with the new roadway, life was hard in the early 19th century. One historical report tells the story of a stagecoach driver identified as James Black. In the winter of 1815, Black stopped to water his cold and weary horses. He then drove the stagecoach and it's passengers to the Jacktown Hotel. After arriving at the inn, the passengers noted that Black didn't jump down from his driver's seat to help them exit the coach. Upon further investigation, they found that James Black had frozen to death.
With the birth of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1852, the turnpike became obsolete. Trains carried passengers from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, offering more comfort and greater speed. By 1869, railroads had grown by leaps and bounds and railway passengers could travel throughout Pennsylvania, as well as much of the United States.
Near the end of the century, automobiles were the up and coming mode of transportation. The number of auto owners soared to 600,000 by 1913. Clearly, Pennsylvania needed a safe and comfortable, uninterrupted east/west hard-surfaced roadway. In the 1930's, as the country struggled to recover from the Great Depression, the birth of the current Pennsylvania Turnpike was taking place.
On October 1, 1940 at 12:01 a.m., hundreds of excited customers waited in line at both the Irwin and Carlisle Interchanges in order to be among the first to drive the original 160-mile span of the nation's first superhighway.
From such humble beginnings, modern turnpikes have grown to offer travelers everything from a wide variety of restaurants within their numerous rest stops, to Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). Thanks to engineering technology, tunnels enable roadways to run through mountains instead of over them. Bridges span both major and minor waterways. Modern engineering offers drivers the freedom to quickly and comfortably drive to the four corners of the United States and points beyond.
Can't wait to see more !
Is there any current maps showing the location of all the tunnels ?
Every time I travel the pike, I wonder where the old tunnels are.
Keep Up Th Good Work !!!
Don Vesey
Youngstown, Oh
Regarding the Pike: Yup, it is obsolete, although I've never encountered a
backup near exit 5, "my" exit. I was on it yesterday (I honked at you as I
passed Irwin) on my way with the kiddies to Laurel Caverns. The kids liked
the Caverns and it was COOL down there...52 degrees. I do plan to take a
trip to Harrisburg this summer, mainly to experience the original Pike. (I can
take my little one to Hershey Park as an excuse). Funny, I've ridden that
road maybe 100 times in my life (I'll be 40 next April) yet not until this
year realized what a feat it was to build it and how important it was to
what became the national interstate system. Anyway, understanding it makes
the trip a whole new experience.
Can you tell me when they last upgraded the New Stanton Exit? I notice that
the original aqua duct was demolished over the past few months. I wanted to
get a chunk of the original concrete, but was unable. My wife is from
Connellsville (no one there now) so I used to make that trip frequently and
get off at New Stanton.
I have been a traveler on the Pa. Turnpike for 50 years, living in NJ with lots of family in Ohio. We are going out tomorrow to a family reunion in Wheeling, WVa. Several years ago I found an article about the history and construction of the original section of the Turnpike in American Heritage May-June 1990 by Dan Cupper. I've never traveled the abandoned sections but every time I go out I see the eastern end of the old Ray's Hill-Sideling Hill section a couple of miles east of the Sideling Hill Plaza.
My first experience with the road was in 1949 when I was traveling from
Ohio to NY. I had fallen asleep and when I woke up we were sitting
outside one of the tunnels. I had visions of the tunnel collapsing when
after a few minutes a truck marked "EXPLOSIVES" lumbered out. I wonder
if they still stop traffic for hazardous cargoes?
Joe Stockert
Joe,
GREAT SITE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.pumpwarehouse.com/pat.html
Are these tunnels passable???? Hard to find??? Hard to get to????? I am handicapped, but can handle a bicycle and have 4 sons that have an interest, what do you think???
John
Got on the road 8/6 from NJ and arrived in Harrisburg around 12:30. Stayed there for an hour. They have a few displays in the lower lobby, but the Turnpike headquarters is being moved in Sept. to Carlisle as the building is to be rebuilt and won't be occupied for about 18 months. All of the films and pictures the Turnpike had, including the ones I taped are now at the Pa. Archives in Harrisburg. I am not sure of their access ability.
I stopped to take a few still photos. First at the a location between exits 23 and 22, and 21 and 20 including the old Denver service station. At Breezewood, about 3:00 I got off and drove via US-30 to the top of the mountain and went down Oregon Road, a dirt road which takes you down to the old Turnpike near Sideling Hill Tunnel. I parked at the old Oregon Campsite and walked to the tunnel. The wooden boards are now gone from the Sideling Hill Tunnel. Took pictures and video there. This took an hour.
Went back to the Turnpike and got on and stopped at Midway for a drink. Stopped at New Stanton to take pictures there. Got to exit 3, about 6:30 and stayed with a friend at Wexford. On Saturday morning got back and headed west. The last 30 miles or so took about a half an hour.
On the return trip last week used the Turnpike exits 1-3, and then 19-30. Took pictures only, no video.
The favorite overpass is the one past the deep cut at Everett. Its a concrete arch bridge. Took slides there and there shots came out fantastic. The T-beam with median piers at New Enterprise(between exit 12 and 11) is gone. Its not being replaced. You would never know it was there. The people who used to cross the bridge now use an underpass just east of the old bridge.
On the return trip it was still daylight between exits 20 and 21, about 20 miles. Its one of the nicest sections, I think of the Turnpike. Lots of concrete bridges that will be there for a long time as this part was finished in 1950 and they had a better concrete to work with.
Got a "Turnpike mouse pad" from my friend which I now use with my computer.
Very few people know about the old Turnpike films. Only those who I gave copies to. I made duplicate 16mm prints of some of them when I had them--the best ones.
