The Ohio Turnpike opened 70 years ago tonight at midnight, marking October 1, 1955 as the official day that it opened.
As the article below from the Lorain Journal of Sept. 30, 1955 notes, "The longest stretch of highway ever opened at one time anywhere – the 219 remaining miles of the Ohio Turnpike – will begin receiving traffic at midnight tonight."
"At that moment, the linking of the entire Ohio Turnpike (241 miles) with the Pennsylvania Turnpike (360 miles) will enable motorists and truck drivers to travel between the Ohio-Indiana line and the Delaware River just north of Philadelphia over the greatest mileage (601 miles) of continuous modern toll road in the world.
"Thus will come into being the major portion of the all-turnpike route between New York and Chicago. Already another 67 miles of that route is in operation south from New York City via the New Jersey Turnpike.
"Until the Indiana Toll Road is in operation travelers can gain access to the western end of the Ohio Turnpike by way of a direct connection between the turnpike and U. S. route 20 just east of the Ohio-Indiana line."
The Portland Cement Association took out a nice ad in that same edition, congratulating the Turnpike Commission, the highway engineers, the contractors and the public officials who made it all happen, and on time too.
I might have to disagree with you a little bit on the turnpike being a road that will get you where you want to go "fast" Dan.Anytime I'm on the turnpike it is orange barrel city.There is always some road construction going on and lots of times the entire 3 lanes will have to funnel into a single lane going under a bridge that is covered with a plastic curtain.And nobody is around working.Then the backup starts.Miles upon miles of vehicles stopped and jammed up going nowhere but still paying for it all mind you.So I'm burning hard earned cash for being given the privilege of being able to be completely stopped in my vehicle and sitting in the middle of a road going nowhere.
ReplyDeleteThe Ohio Turnpike is like a high maintenance woman that wants anything and everything(tolls/cash)only to leave you with nothing(empty pockets/broken dreams)in return.
You can always drop south to 20!
DeleteYikes! I haven't been on it much this summer and for only limited trips at that so I guess I haven't been stuck in construction lately, thank goodness. I do remember decades ago when they were replacing all the overpasses, and then the plazas as well and it was pretty annoying.
ReplyDeleteI drive the turnpike daily, and the construction is very annoying. I drive a 20 mile section to work and there are times that there are 4 separate construction zones in that stretch.
ReplyDeleteI know a guy who does all the purchasing for the Turnpike and asked him about all the overhead bridge construction. He sighed and said, "All those bridges were built at the same time and past maintenance on many of them were deferred, so all of them need work or replaced all at once. Seems they're doing a large number of them every year until all of them meet Turnpike standards. I'm on the road with fair frequency and while the construction's a pain, it's the price you pay for having the road to drive. And like the guy above said, you can always drop south and take Rt 20 which is a pretty nice road in its own right.
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