page_title: Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania / History
caption_attribution_description: Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania
context_page_description: Interstate 81 is an 854.89-mile-long north–south Interstate Highway, stretching from Dandridge, Tennessee to Fisher's Landing, New York at the United States/Canadian border. In the state of Pennsylvania, I-81 runs for 232.63 miles from the Maryland state line near Greencastle to the New York state line near Hallstead and is called the American Legion Memorial Highway. It is the longest north–south Interstate in Pennsylvania.
context_section_description: A toll highway along the present-day I-81 corridor through Pennsylvania was planned in the 1950s. The section from Scranton to the New York State line was planned as a continuation of the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. A new extension of the turnpike Between Harrisburg and Scranton was also proposed. After the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was passed, plans were changed to build a freeway rather than a toll road. The first section to be built ran from PA 347 in Dunmore to US 11 in northern Scranton, this section opening in 1960. All of I-81 in Pennsylvania was completed by the 1970s. Construction cost nearly $443 million.
  On May 9, 2013, a tanker crashed and caught fire at the interchange between I-81 and US 22/US 322 in Harrisburg. The fire damaged the bridges carrying westbound US 22/US 322 and a ramp over I-81. At least one of those bridges, carrying US 22 eastbound over I-81 and several ramps, and possibly another, the ramp carrying traffic from I-81 northbound to US 22/US 322 westbound, would have to be demolished and replaced. The fire resulted in about ten miles of I-81 being closed in both directions, with traffic being diverted along the southern portion of the Capital Beltway. The highway would not be fully reopened to traffic until the evening of May 13.
caption: I-81 northbound approaching Central Scranton Expressway in Scranton
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