Pennsylvania's Once-Abandoned Railroad Is A Now-Thriving 'Dream Highway' Crossing The Entire State

If there's one thing you could never say the U.S. has too little of, it's roads. Some folks like driving or cruising down streets with minimal traffic, while others are struck with immediate road rage the moment their hands touch the steering wheel. But at least in Pennsylvania, on one long road, some drivers might soon find themselves breathing easier and not even needing to stop at a toll booth. Welcome to the new and improved Pennsylvania Turnpike, the once "dream highway" of America, now made better.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike received its "dream highway" moniker, or "super highway," way back in 1940 when its construction finished. Originally spanning about 160 miles from Carlisle to Irwin, the turnpike grew over time to its current length of 565 miles. Moving east to west, the turnpike starts around Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, includes sections of Interstate 476, Interstate 76, and Interstate 376, and finishes around New Castle, Pennsylvania. Few of the 550,000 people who drive it every day know that its tunnels — the hardest part of its construction — already existed as part of an abandoned South Pennsylvania Railroad venture. And perhaps most impressively, the original highway was finished in a mere 23 months. That's something to remember the next time you see a single, unfixed pothole linger on your street for about five years.

But no matter how impressive was the Pennsylvania Turnpike's engineering, it's soon set to outstrip its original "dream highway" nickname. Its toll booths are being extracted so that, starting in 2027, its new Open Road Tolling (ORT) system can get the infrastructure upgrades it needs. No more cash, no more E-ZPass. Gantries hanging over the highway will keep track of every driver. Just keep going, and you'll get billed later.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike's upcoming Open Road Tolling (ORT) system and soon-to-be lack of tollbooths are good reasons to give it a second chance — especially for a road trip. True to its roots as a big "dream highway" built on the path of an abandoned railway project, the turnpike carries vehicles through practically the entire length of Pennsylvania. The path doesn't cut perfectly east-west, but you can still use the 1940-finished road for a state-wide road trip or even a coast-to-coast journey that shadows the role of the road in U.S. history.

Specifically, the turnpike intersects for a bit along I-76 in Pennsylvania with the even older and far more ambitious Lincoln Highway. Built starting in 1913, the Lincoln Highway didn't cross merely one state; it crossed the entire country, from New York City all the way to San Francisco. Echoing the spirit of Westward Expansion and the fearlessness of hardy, 19th-century pioneers, modern road-trippers can find loads of markers and hotspots along the entire history-steeped scenic route of the Lincoln Highway. And with the Pennsylvania Turnpike's enhancements in the works, travelers will have an easier time enjoying their trip and feeling connected to the 19th century's sense of openness and possibility.

And while the Lincoln Highway passes through Chicago and carries on directly west from it, Chicago is also the beginning of Route 66. If you switch over to Route 66 from the Lincoln Highway and crook towards the American Southwest, you'll be coasting along a much-beloved, nostalgia-packed passage saturated in quirky towns like the Wild West kitsch Holbrook, Arizona, or tiny, amazingly-named Funks Grove in Illinois. This is how the dream of the Pennsylvania Turnpike expands into something truly special.