Posted on 12/02/2002 9:14:15 AM PST by Willie Green
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:02:41 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
A six-car pileup near the Somerset exit on the turnpike Sunday morning caused a traffic jam all the way to Allegheny County.
The eastbound cars crashed about 10 a.m. on what is considered the busiest traveling day of the year, state police said.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
But what a miserable ending to a holiday weekend.
There's a good reason for that:
Conceived and built during the Great Depression, The Pennsylvania Turnpike is the Grandfather of the Interstate Highway System. The original roadway was a scant 160 miles long, running from Irwin, just east of Pittsburgh to Middlesex, just west of Harrisburg, Pa. This 160 mile piece of roadway, however, revolutionized automobile travel in the United States. The Pennsylvania Turnpike was the first roadway in the United States that had no cross streets, no railroad crossings, and no traffic lights over its entire length. A trip through the mountains of Pennsylvania with grades of no more than 3% was unheard of prior to this time. A four-lane superhighway through the Allegheny Mountains with unrestricted passing (except through tunnels), the Pennsylvania Turnpike even made the pages of Scientific American due to its state-of-the-art design and construction.
From History and pictures of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and tunnels
Yep, we're talking about the same stretch of road, the 60 miles that are closest to Pittsburgh.
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