History The Ghost Highway-the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike

Thanks for the cool post, If I'm ever up that way I WILL have to see that.

 

http://www.rays-hill.com/turnpike/Web_Pages1985/LHT-CurrentUsage4.htm

if you look at this..and see the picture link about half the way down the page..click on it..than the thumb nails..tons of more pictures

 

Thanks. That was a pretty neat story.

 

Very cool, thank you for sharing

 

Great read,thanks for posting

 

Chip Ganassi Racing currently leases the Laurel Hill Tunnel as far as I can tell still. - NASCAR and Indy cars

 

You rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is one of the best strings I have ever seen ! Bar none. you should submit that to the History channel, I also put this on my Favs and have a new screen saver. job well done.

 

Very cool.

One question. You stated it was "America's first Superhighway". What gives it this distinction? I always thought the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut was the "oldest highway".

 

Rode that Turnpike in the back of two VW's and a 68 Town and Country every summer from central Ohio to northern Jersey, from at least 1962 to about 1976. I remember all of those tunnels, including Sideling Hill before it was abandoned. We got the 68 Chrysler T&C in 1970 and it was nice to finally have A/C.

 

Ahhh, the memories. But, the PA government should be forced to remove it and clean it up. Put it back to nature the way it was. Or,,,turn it into a cool nostalgia drag strip....

 

although the dragstrip idea is intriguing I don't see what's wrong with the hiking, biking park it is now. Urban exploration is becoming bigger and bigger all the time. how many people go to big cities to explore abandoned buildings etc. abandoned tunnels is very cool.

would make a cool daytime halloween horror park too

 

Yes, it is Ganassi Racing that leases the tunnel. The testing that they do is called "coast down testing", by which the team can accurately evaluate aero-dynamic changes by measuring the time it takes the vehicle to coast down from one speed to another. Most of this testing is done on long stretches at vehicle manufacturers' proving grounds, but controlling the variables outdoors (wind, temperature, etc>) is difficult. Ganassi can control the variables more closely "indoors". They have had a few good wrecks in there, however, and torn up equipment might negate some of the cost savings over conventional wind tunnel testing. vic

 

I can remember as a kid being driven on the PA Turnpike, we would go up towards Harrisburg and get on there heading W towards Pittsburgh. It was like "futuristic" for my parents made a big deal about it.

If I am remembering correctly all the restaurants on the turnpike were Howard Johnson's and were very expensive for they were the only restaruants allowed on the turnpike. We very seldom ate on the turnpike but at that time Howard Johnson's was known for a wide variety of ice cream flavors which my brother and I were sometimes allowed to purchase.

Of course my mother, who never ordered ice cream, had to always get our cones "under control" from the dripping and it seemed that there was sometimes a whole scoop missing by the time we got our cones back.

And then there was the time when one of my high school friends and I went to visit her older sister somewhere in PA but coming back got on the turnpike going the wrong direction. We made a u-turn, we must have been at the end for we were back at the toll booth and the the toll takers were quite confused when we handed them our ticket to pay and they noticed that we just got on at their entrance. They asked if we made a u-turn, we told them we made a wrong turn to which they replied that is what they called a u-turn. We were not fined.

 

You outta hear the noise when 4 hot rods go through tunnel side by side at 80 plus mph. One time me and a buddy came flying out of one of the tunnels and there was a bunch of employees from the tunnel cheering and waving to us. I found out later they watch you on closed circuit tv. Next time you go through one rev up the noise.

 

A drag strip would be a cool idea. Recently there was a guy who owned a large farm in York County who wanted to put a professional drag strip on his property. After being beat to death by the local zoning board and the local citizens concerned about traffic and noise, he gave up on the idea.

Maybe he could work a deal for a section of the old turnpike.

 

I love stuff like this.
It's very cool but sad as well as spooky all at the same time. Places like this give a glimpse at what Earth will look like after we're all gone.
Ever drive the stretch of highway out of Paso Robles going towards Bakersfield? You can see remnants of the old highway crisscrossing the existing one (I think it's where James Dean crashed).
Those abandoned chunks of roadway are spiritual....

 

That's amazing! Really cool story you dug up there. Now I want to go and check it out!

 

it would be cool for a drag strip to be built out there, but most folks out there are mostly into dirt track racing - Bedford Speedway, and Thunder Valley Raceway(my family homestead is up in those hills outside of Clearville)

There is also remnants of an old CCC(Civ. Conserv. Corp) Camp turned Nazi POW camp not too far away(camp remnants are about 1/4 mile from the tunnel), on the edge of Buchannan State Forest. Both Sidleling Hill Tunnel and the camp are a very short drive from my parents place as is an old Aqueduct(Woodrige Hollow) and an old Saltpeter cave/mine.

 

I enjoyed that - thank you for taking the time to put it together!!!!

 

http://www.nycroads.com/history/motor/

Vanderbilt Motor Parkway a.k.a Long Island Motor Parkway?

 

Good question, may have something to do with the number of access ramps. The Merrit is still in use, every overpass design is different, and most of the originals are in use.

 

sounds kinda like parts of Rt 66.....wonder how many more are out there?????

 

Awesome!

 

That is really cool. It is just like the show on history channel "Life After People"

 

this isnt by far, a complete list, but with the links, you can find most of them:
http://www.rbs0.com/abandon3.htm

another neat/spooky place to visit in PA is Centralia, PA- an old coal mining town that was abandoned because a fire broke out in the mines beneath the town. The fire is still burning, and is estimated to burn for at least the next 100 years or so...
http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm

 

Great post! The old road surface looks to still be in about the same shape as the current one! My Grandfather pointed out the old tunnel when I was a kid and I look that direction everytime now..

 

I really like the Merrit, use it whenever I'm in CT- there bridge/overpass designs are not only different, but someone gave a thought to how they would fit into the landscape. And there are no trucks-you can't say that about I-95 which is the alternative.

As for Centralia-there's not much left-a few hangers-on. It's really weird though having smoke and fire rise out of all the vents in the earth-kind of like the Gates of Hell as you descend down into the town.

As for a dragstrip, you'd need not only to get there,but also enough people to make it a viable enterprise-neither is really easy in that part of the Commonwealth.

 

Fascinating, thanks for sharing!
Agreed with much of the sentiment- this is why I love the HAMB. As for the "make it a dragstrip" ideal. nah, let it crumble in peace.
I'm gonna make it a point to go on a bicycle trip out there in the near future now!

 

Now that is what I consider to be a national treasure (please don't tell nick cage...he will make another movie!). Thanks for sharing this! I never knew about it.

 

Welp! Now I've got to look that area up and go check it all out!
Man! that has got to be one cool exploring place.... I love that stuff.
Thanks for the post.