page_title: Blue Mountain (Pennsylvania)
section_title: The Pennsylvania Turnpike
hierarchical_section_title: Blue Mountain (Pennsylvania) / The Pennsylvania Turnpike
caption_attribution_description: English: Western portal of the Blue Mountain Tunnel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
context_page_description: Blue Mountain Ridge, Blue Mountain, or the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania is part of the geophysical makeup of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is a ridge that forms the southern and eastern edge of the Appalachian mountain range spanning over 255 miles from the Delaware Water Gap as it cuts across the eastern half of the state on a slight diagonal from New Jersey tending southerly until it turns southerly curving into Maryland, and beyond.
  Some distant view of The Blue Mountain dominates the southern tier of most eastern and central Pennsylvanian counties providing an ever visible backdrop cutting across the northern or western horizon. Most transport corridors and road beds piercing the barrier necessarily descend through either large water gaps or wind gaps their smaller tributary gaps cut by creeks, brooks, and lesser rivers. The descent into the southern lowlands are ramplike and before southbound travelers oft lays a scenic panorama spread from horizon to horizon. The barrier ridge forms a distinct boundary between a number of Pennsylvania's geographical and cultural regions.
context_section_description: The Pennsylvania Turnpike system passes through the Blue Mountain at two points.
  The Blue Mountain Tunnel carries the Turnpike's east–west mainline (Interstate 76) through the ridge in northern Franklin County. The Kittatinny Mountain Tunnel bores through a parallel ridge of the same mountain just to the west, with the two tunnel portals only 0.2 miles (0.32 km) apart.
  The Lehigh Tunnel, so named to avoid confusion with the former, carries the Turnpike's north–south Northeast Extension (Interstate 476) through the ridge between Lehigh and Carbon counties.
  Both tunnels (each consisting of two tubes) carry two lanes in each direction of travel.
caption: The western portal of the eastbound Blue Mountain Tunnel
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