People paid a penny a mile to drive down the most advanced and innovative highway in the US when it was designed 85 years ago

The most innovative highway in America wasn’t born in California or Texas: it was the Pennsylvania Turnpike, crossing through the Appalachian Mountains.

When it opened in 1940, it wasn’t just another road; it was a marvel of modern engineering that made cross-state driving faster, smoother, and, at least by 1940 standards, jaw-droppingly futuristic.

Drivers were so eager to experience it that they paid a penny per mile to cruise across it.

Eighty-five years later, this highway is still a symbol of America’s love affair with the open road.

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The Pennsylvania Turnpike was a US Autobahn when it first opened

The Pennsylvania Turnpike began as a bold idea: build a high-speed toll road through the Appalachian Mountains using the remnants of an unfinished railroad.

The result was a 160-mile stretch between Carlisle and Irwin, hailed as America’s first superhighway.

It was built in just 23 months, using six old train tunnels and 15,000 workers from 18 states.

When it opened on October 1, 1940, the nation went wild.

Drivers lined up at midnight to race across the new road, with some clocking speeds of 80 to 90 mph because, at the time, there were no speed limits.

Basically, it was the German Authobahn, but in the US.

The most innovative highway in America introduced the rumble strip

At the time, the Turnpike was the most innovative highway the US had ever seen.

It had wide lanes, gentle curves, long acceleration ramps, no intersections, and no stop signs, which are all things people take for granted these days.

While it didn’t have 26 lanes like the wildest highway in the world, it was still very impressive for the time.

Engineers even banned billboards to keep drivers focused.

Service plazas popped up along the route to refuel both cars and passengers, a first for American highways.

Critics predicted it would be a flop, expecting fewer than 800 cars a day.

Instead, 240,000 vehicles showed up in the first four days, proving Americans were ready for the future of travel.

The innovations didn’t stop there.

In the 1980s, the Pennsylvania Turnpike became the birthplace of the rumble strip, or more specifically, the ‘Sonic Nap Alert Pattern’, which cut off-road accidents by a staggering 70 per cent.

Over time, many of its features, from divided lanes to service plazas, were copied by highways across the nation.

Today, the Pennsylvania Turnpike may look like any other toll road, but its history runs deep.

Eighty-five years ago, it was the road that taught America how to drive fast and safely, and all for a penny a mile.

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