Pennsylvania Turnpike: The Abandoned Superhighway

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A slide show devoted mainly to the stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike that was bypassed in 1968 and abandoned for years until the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy purchased it for development as a biking and hiking path. This 10-mile stretch of American transportation history is a treasure to behold. I have plans on May 13th (West Virginia Primaries!) to take my daughter and her friend out to ride our bikes through the Rays Hill Tunnel and to drive on down to the old Cove Valley Service Plaza to look for the old bathroom tile embedded in the grass before riding up to the Sideling Hill Tunnel, then on to the Sideling Hill Travel Plaza for some Starbucks. Good times, good times!
Music in the video is "Light At the End of the Tunnel" by Keith Whitley, both the version from the "Wherever You Are Tonight" CD and Version 2 from the "Demos, Volume 3" compilation.
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Опубликовано:

15 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 87

@PNY372 15 лет назад

I grew up in Jeannette, Pa. which is between Exits 7 (67) and 8 (75) which is Irwin and New Stanton. I have many great memories of the turnpike and, despite its flaws, is a great ride to anywhere in Pennsylvania. My dad and I went to Carlisle for the car show twice a year and I memorized all of the exits and tunnels. Thank you so much for honoring the heritage of the turnpike. BTW, I love stopping in Sideling Hill. Thank you so much for honoring the heritage of this great road.

@merks62 15 лет назад

I live almost 300 miles away, and can assert after several visits that you ought to get out there ASAP. The first time I went hunting for them in 1988, ironically, I ran into an old RR tunnel ernthusiast in a '64 Ford Galaxie who had the exact same objective on the very same day. Once we joined forces and found our way to Ray's Hill, it was like the roadbed had been abandoned for 1,000 years, and the echo inside was a clear and powerful as a bell's. Simply unforgettable!!!

@MAMsMom97 16 лет назад

That's so sweet! I don't know what to say. Thank you! It is a fascinating place. To be out there on a bike on a road you know had been travelled on by millions of motorists in its 27-year existence makes for a truly surreal experience.

@Kevin69415 13 лет назад

For me personally this song holds a special place in my heart !! It was the song that we played at my fathers' funeral back in 1997 ! May he rest in peace ! Thank-you so very much Keith .

@TexasRushing 12 лет назад

My brother lives a few miles from an entrance to this abandoned highway. Two years ago we took my jeep down it and I ended up with two flats! It's amazing though to see how nature is slowly taking back what we took from it. At the same time it's kinda errie to be on a highway that was once full of travelers and now is completely empty, kinda feels like one of those movies where everyone disappears.

@glennpaull903 9 лет назад

Well done and great music - thanks for sharing - Last time I was there was 1952

@TVwriter23 15 лет назад

Makes you wonder about these new highways. There may come a time when our grandchildren have pictures of them abandoned.

@TheWetguy1973 13 лет назад

I had a chance back in 1978 to go into the old Sideling Hill Tunnel with a turnpike offical. Yes it was very erie and the echo was great. At 6782 ft. long it was the longest tunnel and you could not see the west portal{I was at the eastern portal} The turnpike offical told me there was a slight knoll in the middle of the tunnel for drainage purposes and that was the reason you could not see the opposite portal. He also said that all the tunnels should have been double-bore as hind sight is 20/20

@MAMsMom97 16 лет назад

That's very sweet of you to say, thank you! I don't do much on RU-vid that doesn't involve Keith Whitley. Thank you for stopping by!

@missmopar28 16 лет назад

this video is wonderful!! i have hiked/biked the abandoned turnpike a few times, and it gets more exciting every time!! thanks for posting this, the song is so fitting, incredible work!!

@merks62 15 лет назад

I'll also scarcely forget how dark it was in there too, once I'd walked far enough inside to see the tunnel portals shink to pinhole size! I guess it's just as well I didn't see the bats that were probably in there with me!

@Lvfd416 10 лет назад

I think of this video every time I drive through the area. I never saw Ray's Hill or Sideling Hill, but in the daytime you can still see the west portal of Laurel Hill (gotta be quick- there's a salt dome now in front of it). One thing I do know about those bypasses is that they can be a bitch to climb in a loaded semi. I frequently run from Youngstown, Ohio to Hagerstown, Maryland. Our company also uses the truck stops in Breezewood for "slips". A truck comes from each end of the run and meets in the middle, where the drivers swap trailers and return to the terminal they started from.

@Jas4u2 10 лет назад

Beautiful , and to add Keith Whitley to it was brilliant , thank you for sharing .

@maregee 15 лет назад

We started going back to Ocean City, NJ in 2001. I KNEW I remembered more tunnels than we went through!!! I thought my memories were wrong!

@thomasschwarting5108 2 года назад

LOVED the accompaniment music!!

@MAMsMom97 15 лет назад

You're so right about the echo. I enjoyed reading your comment very much. Thank you!

@sweetaatish 13 лет назад

This part of the Turnpike is filmed on the Movie called "The Road". If, you guys didn't watch it. I recommend it. it's about a boy and a father.

@MAMsMom97 16 лет назад

It sure does. Be sure to check out my other video I have up that shows our visit to the old Turnpike. We went there after a weekend of hard rain. That's the time to go, but just be sure to bring your Cutter. It gets buggy. Thanks for stopping by!

@MAMsMom97 16 лет назад

I knew this would pique your interest, Jim. I know you're a biker. I grew up only 10 miles from the abandoned stretch that runs from the Sideling Hill Plaza to Breezewood, so I know this area like the back of my hand. I'll get ya there!

@MAMsMom97 14 лет назад

Most of it is in Fulton County. The extreme western end is in Bedford County, just outside Breezewood. The Fulton-Bedford County Line is in the middle of Rays Hill Tunnel. So if you're in Cambria County, you're not that far away. What, like, 70 or 80 miles away?

@PNY372 15 лет назад

BTW, I love the song that goes with this video. It is very appropriate on so many levels if you grew up in Pennsylvania.

@MAMsMom97 15 лет назад

If you just started going back to NJ in 2001, you couldn't have gone through the Laurel Hill, Rays Hill, & Sideling Hill Tunnels; those tunnels were closed down in 1968!

@HattieLovesCattie 11 лет назад

I was in that area a year ago.I saw the signs for Breezewood and started to look for the old tunnels.I saw one entrance.I'd like to go back to Pa someday and see Centralia.

@ArtStone 14 лет назад

The tunnels were started in the 1800s as a competing RR to the Pennsylvania RR . After the PRR agreed to lower rates, the route was abandoned until the automobile came along 50 years later and the turnpike was built along the ROW

@MAMsMom97 16 лет назад

That's so nice, thank you!

@rubber20021 10 лет назад

Thanks for posting this great history!

@BCSchmerker 13 лет назад

Well done on a future pedestrian and bicycle trail. Out here in California, I'd like to see East Bay Regional Parks begin surveying the currently-closed Oakland & Antioch tunnel to see whether it can be rebuilt for a pedestrian/bicycle trail (it last carried rail traffic in 1963, when the Western Pacific was ripping up its tracks and wiring).

@MAMsMom97 13 лет назад

@TheWetguy1973 Thanks for the insightful and intelligent comment & message you left me. A lot of folks feel as you do, that they'd been better off to double-bore and keep the highway in the valley. My dad is one of them. He often drove that stretch before it was closed permanently in '68. The icy fog that often builds up on Rays Hill is nasty and has been responsible for many pileups.

@whatihave2do 14 лет назад

Came back to your video because I couldn't recall what town it was near. They finally have Birds eye view in this area. COOL!. Again great video. Hope to see this in person one of these days. Now I have a much better camera with a card big enough to hold thousands of photos. Once I get a new or slightly used bike I hope to get off my duff and get up there.

@MAMsMom97 15 лет назад

Check the video description. I put that information on there on May 2, 2008, when I uploaded this video.

@southofhere85 11 лет назад

Nice video man, I drove the pa turnpike many times and never knew this!

@bingbongstar 15 лет назад

Because at the seven tunnels the four laned highway merged to two. This caused a lot of backup traffic. Four of the seven tunnels were had another one added to it, this was called twinning. The three that were abandoned were bypassed because it was cheaper then twinning them.

@MAMsMom97 13 лет назад

@geeayevette Hopefully, all the professional photographers whose work was represented here read your post. Also, if you read, this video was posted 3 years ago, before RU-vid made all the upgrades to their videos and provided the choices to users for playback quality that they offer now, so this was uploaded in basic 240p. You can view my other video that features me, my daughter, and her friend on our first bike ride on the old turnpike. That may be a better experience for you... maybe.

@MAMsMom97 12 лет назад

@kathygo12 Do you have a pause button on your device?

@TexasRushing 12 лет назад

Your thinking of some other turnpike. This one was in service from the 40's until the late 60's. It was closed when a new highway was built because the tunnel was a bottle neck causing to much backed up traffic.

@MAMsMom97 13 лет назад

@elvishitler 1.) I had so many great pics, & I had to space them to make them all fit inside the length of the music. The video can be paused if you see a pic you particularly like. 2.) The video was made 2 yrs ago, back when ALL videos uploaded to YT had sucky resolution. So the resolution was only as good as YT allowed it to be. 3.) Sorry you can't appreciate the genius of the great Keith Whitley. Your use of the S word was hurtful. Don't know Gorecki. Maybe another video would be better.

@MAMsMom97 16 лет назад

Definitely, much cheaper. And, you know, the bypass wound up only being 6/10 of a mile longer without the tunnels than the stretch that was abandoned. Isn't that crazy? Of course, the bypass is higher in elevation, so there is major problems with fog and ice, especially on top of Rays Hill.

@johnhudelson2652 3 года назад

Also.don't forget maintenance on the newer stretch of highway might be cheaper than maintaining the tunnels.

@MAMsMom97 13 лет назад

@Bllackguard666 I was born & raised in Fulton County, 15 minutes from the old PA Turnpike, and there are no underground coal fires anywhere in Fulton County that I know of. I don't think there are any coal mines at all in Fulton County.

@MAMsMom97 14 лет назад

@randog69 Randy who's version of what?? "Light At the End of the Tunnel?"

@MAMsMom97 15 лет назад

Oh, I misunderstood. Well, the tunnels are still there, if you have some extra time to take a walk, the next time you find your way back.

@bradklingensmith 16 лет назад

Awesome video, we biked the Breezewood area last year.

@MAMsMom97 15 лет назад

It is illegal to have any kind of motor vehicle on the abandoned stretch of the Turnpike, unless it has been cleared with the Game Commission first.

@MAMsMom97 15 лет назад

So, you live above Burnt Cabins in Huntington County? Cool!

@maregee 15 лет назад

No, I meant that it had been years since I'd been there. We started going when I was little, around 1955 or 56. The last time i had been there before 2001 was probably 1972. But I don't remember missing the other tunnels from those last few years. But then, I was a self-absorbed teenager by that time!

@riorocketxo 13 лет назад

@MAMsMom97 Agreed on the Keith Whitley point! His songs have words in them that speak more trueful phrases than any other songs could! He sure was a genius! (:

@bisket2003 14 лет назад

So whats this all like now a days? And did they by chance shoot "The Road" at the rays hill tunnel opening? Any google maps locations?

@Lvfd416 10 лет назад

Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to add that I love the two old trucks at 5:57. I'm not certain about the first one, as I can't zoom in enough to be certain, but it looks like an International. The second one is definitely an International Loadstar.

@thebakerman1 12 лет назад

I understand what you're saying here but this is usually done intentionally when there is a lot of information to be relayed through texts. A lot of people do this today with their video's but it's intended for people to pause the video at various points to be able to read the info presented. I know this may not be the greatest way to present a video but I've seen a lot of them on RU-vid that do this when they have a lot of info to convey. Nonetheless, you have to pause it a lot to read it!

@waults 15 лет назад

open it back up, it looks to be in better shape than alot of the freeway we have right now

@greencoman 12 лет назад

awesome vid thanks alot.

@OonaCanute 15 лет назад

Man, you arent kidding.

@NotLost 15 лет назад

Great research vid; Thanks. Its our next Road Trip. Will post the vid if we do anything worthy.

@HattieLovesCattie 11 лет назад

I'd be worried about flat tires on any old road.I saw one of the old entrances when on the newer hwy a year ago.Once I saw the Breezwood sign,I knew where I was.

@HattieLovesCattie 11 лет назад

I love old hwys too but they do take long to drive on.

@msfproductionsmain 13 лет назад

@elvishitler If you havn't noticed that song is a song about the Pa Turnpike. I'm not into country myself. But the song does fit.

@MAMsMom97 13 лет назад

@Bllackguard666 It was to accommodate the growing numbers of traffic using the road. I explain the reason for the road being shut down in comments on this video posted a year ago, a little farther down, if you want to scroll down a bit. As far as the burning underground mine fires you mentioned, you might want to check out my video on my visit to Centralia, PA. That's the town you might be thinking about.

@MAMsMom97 14 лет назад

@MAMsMom97 No one by the name of Randy ever recorded this song, I'm sorry to say.

@johnboys4697 4 года назад

Too much Pixelation and the titles goes so fast I can’t keep pausing not too happy with the video it’s a shame

@TheWetguy1973 13 лет назад

@martybhoy72 I use to live in Lancaster County Pa and drove the PA turnpike to the Pittsburgh area alot{in the mid to late 80's.} From what turnpike officals said it was supposedly more economical to build a 13 mile bypass around the Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill Tunnels than double tunnel them. Those were not hills, they were mountains. So the turnpike took it's road up on top of mountains from a perfectly good valley road. Wheather conditions are worse up there than in a valley..smart move..NO!

@MAMsMom97 12 лет назад

@Bertisevil666 Fortunately, I've only ever experienced rush hour in Squirrel Hill and Monroeville on the east side of town. That was bad enough.

@paintballkiller54 14 лет назад

can you accualy drive on this. where is it?

@Tylersaywhat 14 лет назад

drift practice on those bends for sure

@MartinFarrell1972 13 лет назад

Why was the road abandoned?

@msfproductionsmain 13 лет назад

@MAMsMom97 Ah Yes, Breezewood, The Town of Motels............... I love driving through Breezewood.

@Monsy11 14 лет назад

Hey i think that they shot a scene in The Road here.

@HattieLovesCattie 11 лет назад

And Randy has a drinking issue too and still alive.I wonder how he is doing I rehab after his heart surgery?

@tmklunk 13 лет назад

where is this located ?

@cgkeddington 14 лет назад

SO HOW WOULD I GET TO IT FROM HANCOCK MD

@aimo7029 3 года назад

North I 70

@Monsy11 14 лет назад

I think they shot a scene from The Road here: 0:58

@Taggerskillz 15 лет назад

why was it abandoned?

@apocyldoomer 12 лет назад

Awesome song by the late Keith Whitley, the former up and coming next country Superstar. Sadly, he drank himself to death. Anyhow, nice work

@robertreaves130 7 лет назад

why did it closed down

@leehuff2330 5 лет назад

Decision was made to bypass Laurel Hill, Ray's Hill, and Sideling Hill because it was less expensive than boring a second tunnel there. Studies are now underway towards replacing Allegheny Mountain with either a cut or a new tunnel.

@geeayevette 13 лет назад

If you ever wish to do a followup on this piece of history, I'd appreciate seeing it. But.. But, can you eliminate the 'silk screen' effect, and next time photograph pictures in sharp focus, and in direct sunlight? Reason: Your interpretation is very artfully done. But I wish the imagery was as close to 'being there' as possible..short of having to travel there myself. Would you be so kind to accomodate me (us?) in the future? Thank you, and have a Rainbow Day!!

@JimmyDean404 15 лет назад

scary but I went on the penn turnpike a few years ago

@richardthrippauthorofalong5671 11 лет назад

The postal card is an antique. It's not wine. It's not of a vintage.

@kathygo12 12 лет назад

way too fast!! i couldn't read the captions!! can't watch it anymore, sorry!

@vincentkhoful 14 лет назад

can use as car tester &racing track

@MAMsMom97 15 лет назад

Check out the posted comments from 11 months ago. That will give you your answer.

@MAMsMom97 15 лет назад

And, no, there are no similarities at all whatsoever between Randy Travis and Keith Whitley. Keith Whitley is a FAR, FAR superior singer than Randy will ever DREAM of being!!!