Evening star., 1940-09-29
BY JACQUES FUTRELLE, JR.
Travel Editor

AIaNc1 Goitot.
Picture a concrete highway of
four lanes without a grade crossing,
with no stop lights and no steep
grades throughout its 100 miles;
highway that flows over and through
the rugged beauty of the Appalach-
, ian Mountains, seldom passing
within sight of town in the we'll
populated State and never present.
ing a distracting. fnarring billboard;
where eating facilities at popular
prices will be offered without road
side hot dog stands-picture it and
you have an actuality. the soon
to,open Pennsylvania turnpike.
AS guests of the Greyhound Lines,
which has filed application to oper-
ate Harrisburg to Pittsburgh buses
over the super-safe highway, group
of Eastern travel editors recently
made preview trip Of the ITO miles
of straightaway and so miles of wide,
clear, visioned curves. to be i'm
pressed not only with the engineer
ing skill of the project nor the
beauty OF the scenes it tapped,
but principally with the fact that
speed can be consistent with the
preservation of life.
Without delving into the causes
Of accidents but with a fam knowl-
edge of what the major highway
hazards are, this is the way they
| figure it: The Lincoln highway ira
verses relatively the same region
| and on the stretch between the ter
mini Of the turnpike there are 93e
road and street intersections and II
railroad crossings. On the turn
pike there are none. Last year, on
this section of the Lincoln highway
(U. S. routes II and 800 % persons
were killed and there were 749 &C
cidents These figures exclude traf-
| flc fatalities and crashes within the
limits of the towns and boroughs
through which the Lincoln highway
passes.
The turnpike, last word in auto
mobile arteries, can trace its history
back to the days of the colorful and
costly warfare Of the railroad ty-
coons in the 1880s. 1t follows gen.
orally the route laid out for the old
South Penn Railroad, project that
never was realized. After $1O,OO0,- =
900 had been sunk into the scheme,
the reputed Intervention of the
House Of Morgan halted not only
the work on the South Penn but
also stopped another proposed line
that challenged the supremacy of
the New York Central farther
north.
Utilization of AZ miles of tunnels
dug for the South Penn backed up
the practical vision of the men who
pressed through with the turnpike
idea. Almost 2H miles more of tun-
nels were dug to fulfill the standard
set by the engineers-that no grade
be more than 8 per cent; i. e., a
3-foot rise for every 100 feet. This
standard also resulted in the saving
OF about 5000 feet of vertical climbs
over existing routes.
Delivers into automobile driving
psychology have found a reluctance
bordering on fear, to enter vehicular
tunnels. In planning the turnpike &
lighting, engineers took this fact
into account and specified mercury
lights to give the appearance OF
daylight. Sodium vapor lights are
used to illuminate the tunnel en-
frances. An eighth tunnel would
have been added to the highway,
but after study it was decided to
lift on the roof and the Clear Ridge
Cut represents the removal of / 900, :
600 cubic yards of rock and gravel.
Three Of the tunnels are more
than mile long. Assuring them of
proper ventilation are powerful,
electric c-driven fans, housed In con-
crete buildings rising over the en-
frances Of the passages. Ducts car