Pennsylvania

Take a journey on the Pennsylvania Turnpike - the "superhighway" that went from one generation's tourist destination to the ridicule of another's.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike opened to traffic on October 1, 1940. Built using the right-of-way and unfinished tunnels of the never completed South Pennsylvania Railroad, it was a supreme achievement of civil engineering. The new highway immediately captured the public's imagination and proved to be an unqualified success. Motorists flocked from around the country to drive on the new "superhighway," and it became a tourist destination on its lonesome. But along with that success, the seeds were planted for its eventual fall from grace. Under-engineered, poorly maintained, and the victim of premature obsolescence, the highway became the object of public scorn in little more than a generation. Only since the turn of the 21st century were real efforts made to change that perception.

See how the Pennsylvania Turnpike proved the doubters wrong and came to be known as the World's Greatest Highway.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is one of the best-known highways in the United States. Most Pennsylvania Turnpike travelers are unaware that its construction was inspired by the route of the never-completed South Pennsylvania Railroad. In the 1930s, men of great vision conceived, planned, and built the nation's first long-distance superhighway using the abandoned railroad's partially finished tunnels as its foundation.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike draws from the extensive photograph collection in the Pennsylvania State Archives. Many were taken by photographers hired by both the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and its contractors, and most have never been published previously. Originally predicted to be a financial failure, the project wound up being a tremendous success and, eventually was expanded and improved, laying the groundwork for the nation's Interstate Highway System.

The William Penn Highway was a major route through the Appalachian Mountains between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh throughout the 20th century. Established in 1916, a decade prior to the federal highway system, the road succeeded the former Northern Turnpike, with much of it following the course of the Pennsylvania Railroad through the Juniata River Valley. The highway also followed the former path of the Allegheny Portage Railroad in climbing the long grade of the Allegheny Ridge. In 1926, US Route 22 was established to follow the highway's course, extending it eastward to Newark, New Jersey, and westward to Cincinnati, Ohio, where it remains well traveled today. This book shows many of the highway's scenic and historic sites.

Pennsylvania's mid-20th-century Route 6 brought together appealing natural environments, historical events, and cultural landscapes. The eastern length of the route crosses an area featuring rolling mountains and tranquil valleys dotted by farms and towns. To the west, Route 6 traverses a more level landscape that also includes lakes. This book presents the 370-mile scenic drive as a destination in itself. It covers the secluded setting of northern Pennsylvania where Route 6 and its towns have experienced minimal changes associated with larger metropolitan regions and interstate highways. As a result, the mid-20th-century landscapes of Route 6 have lingered a little longer. The authors give the reader a peek of a past not entirely swept away.

Unlike today's interstate highway system, the earlier routes offered ever-changing scenes and roadside attractions. Although the Lincoln Highway crosses the entire country from New York City to San Francisco, the route it follows through Pennsylvania offers some of the most diverse and beautiful scenery. From the relatively flat terrain in the eastern part of the state to the mountains in the west, the highway passes through large cities and small towns, and almost all of these areas offered something to the motoring public. The popularity of the automobile gave rise to some of the highway's greatest attractions, such as Bill's Place and the S. S. Grand View Ship Hotel, which was destroyed by fire in 2001. Along Pennsylvania's Lincoln Highway is a trip back into time, and it recalls the days when getting to a destination was half the fun.

The history of America is written over every mile of the National Road in Pennsylvania. The original National Road can be traced to Native American trails. George Washington, Gen. Edward Braddock, and James Burd converted portions of Native American trails into a roadway suitable for military purposes and westward expansion. Then came the National Road, built in the early 1800s to accommodate increased traffic traveling westward on the existing road. It was the first federally built road in the United States. Alternately called the National Pike and the Cumberland Road, the National Road was overlaid by segments of U.S. Route 40 in the 1920s. Today, the National Road is designated as a National Scenic Byway as well as an All-American Road. From Addison to West Alexander, The National Road in Pennsylvania contains images of important historic sites and towns on the ninety-mile stretch of highway. The defeat of Col. George Washington's troops at Fort Necessity spawned the French and Indian War. One of the most famous instigators of the Whiskey Rebellion, David Bradford, built his home alongside the National Road. The first cast-iron bridge in America was built on the National Road in Brownsville. The road is flanked by toll houses, coal mines, historic taverns, and automobile camps. One will find images of an S-bridge, mile markers, and memorials relating to the history of the area.

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway has sliced through the Logan Square neighborhood of Center City (downtown) Philadelphia since World War I. Named after Philadelphia's favorite son, the mile-long boulevard begins at city hall and heads diagonally towards Logan Circle before reaching the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The postcards and other images in this work show the parkway's development and its role in Philadelphia's civic and cultural life. Despite often serving as a speedway into and out of town, the Ben Franklin Parkway is a triumph in urban planning that has become a treasured part of the City of Brotherly Love.

The tiny villages along what is now known as the Route 100 Corridor are Bally, Eshbach, Bechtelsville, New Berlinville, Boyertown, and Washington Township, which consists of Schultzville, Barto, and Forgedale. In the late 1800s, the area's prosperous industry attracted such figures as Thomas Edison. The rich history of the area also includes the worst fire in U.S. history, the first Mennonite house of worship, one of the first Catholic missions in the thirteen original colonies, and a young missionary woman who traveled to India and perished on the Titanic. Through vintage photographs and descriptive captions, Along the Route 100 Corridor is a trip down these historic dirt roads with the early settlers.

In the 1860s, Broad Street formed the western edge of downtown Philadelphia and was little more than railroad tracks and train depots.

However, with the building of Philadelphia City Hall in the 1870s, Broad Street rapidly developed into one of the city's premier streets. Rows of mansions sprung up south of Spruce Street, and the area north of Spruce became known as ""hotel row."" Four-story brownstones lined both sides of North Broad Street, interspersed with the mansions and gardens of the nouveau riche and punctuated by clubs, theaters, schools, churches, and synagogues. Philadelphia's Broad Street: South and North is the first photographic history devoted exclusively to Broad Street in its ""gilded age."" These vintage images provide a vivid reminder, if one is needed, of how dramatically the street has changed in the last one hundred years.

Along the Route 100 Corridor Revisited documents the villages and townspeople along the Route 100 Corridor that were instrumental in the beginnings of many industries in the area. They also played a significant role in the formation of religious organizations, including the Mennonite, Catholic, and Schwenkfelders. Heavily populated by the Pennsylvania Dutch, industries such as furniture making, pottery, shoemaking, and tinsmithing all developed. Businesses known as hucksters serviced the nearby
communities by traveling via horse-drawn wagons. Travel back to the dirt roads, country doctors, and rural lifestyle through this collection of vintage photographs.

The Bucktail Highway, Pennsylvania Route 120, traverses over 100 miles of the commonwealth's historic northern tier, linking Ridgway in the west with Lock Haven in the east. The Bucktail Highway crosses the eastern continental divide east of St. Marys and closely follows the picturesque, deep valleys carved by Sinnemahoning Creek and the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Originally a Native American path and later a road that carried settlers west beyond the Allegheny Front, today's Bucktail Highway is a centerpiece of the Pennsylvania Wilds, a public-private initiative to promote and conserve the unique natural and historic resources of the region. Along the Bucktail Highway showcases over 200 vintage postcards profiling the cultural and natural history of the towns, forests, and waters linked by this scenic route from its beginnings as a westward trail, its growth as a commercial and industrial corridor in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and its recent emergence as a premier Pennsylvania scenic byway.