New Jersey Turnpike

From Free net encyclopedia

This article is about the modern freeway. For the 19th century turnpike, see Jersey Turnpike.

Image:New Jersey Turnpike shield.png The New Jersey Turnpike is a toll road in New Jersey and is one of the most heavily traveled highways in the United States. A segment of it is part of the interstate highway system. Construction of the Turnpike from conceptualization to opening took an astonishingly brief 23 months from 1950 to 1952. The Turnpike boasts 12-foot-wide lanes, 10-foot-wide shoulders, 13 rest areas named after notable New Jerseyans, and unusual exit signage that was considered the pinnacle of highway building in the 1950s. The Interstate Highway System took some of its design guidelines by copying the Turnpike's design guidelines.

General information

Image:New Jersey Turnpike toll ticket.jpg

The main trunk of the New Jersey Turnpike runs from Deepwater, New Jersey in the south to Ridgefield, New Jersey in the north. It is designated as unsigned New Jersey State Highway 700 from exits 1 through 6 and Interstate 95 from exits 6 through 18. The number of lanes ranges from 4 lanes south of exit 4, the interchange with Route 73, to 6 lanes between exits 4 and 8A, the interchange with Route 32.

Before the advent of the interstate highways, the whole Turnpike was designated by the New Jersey Department of Transportation as Route 700, with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Extension being New Jersey State Highway 700P and the Newark Bay Extension being New Jersey State Highway 700N at one time. The western spur is officially known as New Jersey State Highway 95W but signed as Interstate 95 (see below). None of these state highway designations have ever been signed.

North of exit 8A, the Turnpike splits into a "dual-dual" configuration, with the outer lanes open to all vehicles and the inner lanes limited to cars only, unless signed otherwise because of unusual conditions. From here to exit 14, the interchange with Interstate 78, the road ranges from 10 to 14 lanes wide.

Between exits 14 and 18, the Turnpike splits into two spurs, an eastern spur and a western spur. Both spurs are posted as I-95, although technically the eastern spur is I-95 as that was built first. The western spur is posted as I-95 for through traffic on I-95, while traffic entering at the ends of the split is routed via the eastern spur. The New Jersey Department of Transportation (which calls every class of highway Route) calls the western spur Route 95W.

The Turnpike also has two extensions: The first, the Newark Bay Extension, is part of Interstate 78; it opened in 1956. It connects Newark with Jersey City and intersects the main trunk near Newark Liberty International Airport. This extension contains exits 14A, 14B, and 14C.

The second extension connects the main trunk of the New Jersey Turnpike with the Pennsylvania Turnpike at exit 6. It is a 6-mile extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike into New Jersey, and it is part of I-95.

A four-mile stretch of I-95 north of U.S. Route 46 came under Turnpike Authority jurisdiction in 1992, as the New Jersey Department of Transportation "sold" the road in order to balance the state budget. This section of the road is also "dual-dual", split into local and express lanes.

The New Jersey Turnpike is a toll road, using a system of long-distance tickets, obtained once by a motorist upon entering and surrendered upon exiting at toll gates. The toll gates exist at all exits and entrances and also at the highway extension toward the Hudson River. The toll fee depends on the distance traveled between entrance and exit, and longer distances result in higher tolls. As of 2004, the automobile toll from exit 1 to exit 18 is $6.45. Discounts are available to users of the E-ZPass electronic toll collection system. Express E-ZPass implementation is underway, allowing E-ZPass customers at some toll plazas to travel through toll areas at highway speeds, via the addition of E-ZPass sensors on an overhead gantry. At each location, traditional E-ZPass and cash lanes are also available.

On July 9, 2003, New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey's plan to merge the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and the New Jersey Highway Authority (which had operated the Garden State Parkway) into one agency was completed.

In November 2004, acting New Jersey Governor Richard Codey advocated a plan to widen the Turnpike, extending the dual-dual configuration 20.1 miles south from exit 8A to exit 6, by 2011, when the Pennsylvania Turnpike is supposed to complete an interchange that will connect its road to the existing I-95 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Construction history

The task of building the turnpike, was not an easy one. Speed of construction was the priority, probably why it has little pizzazz. One major problem was the construction in the city of Elizabeth, New Jersey, where either 450 homes or 32 businesses would be destroyed, depending on the chosen route. The builders decided to go through the residential area, considering it the grittiest and the closest route to both Newark Airport and the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal seaport.

When construction finally got to Newark, there was a new challenge; Deciding to build either over or under the Pulaski Skyway. If construction went above the skyway, the costs would be much higher. If they went under, the costs would be lower, but the roadway would be very close to the Passaic River, making it harder for ships to pass through. The engineers chose to go under.

While continuing up to the New Jersey Meadowlands, the crossings were harder because of the fertile marsh land of silt and mud. Near the shallow mud, engineers filled the mud with crushed stone, and built the roadway above the water table. In the deeper mud, engineers sank caissons down to a firm stratum, filled the caissons with sand, then both the caissons, and the surrounding areas were covered with blankets of sand. Gradually, the water was brought up, and drained into adjacent meadows. Then, the construction of the two major bridges over the Passaic River and Hackensack River were completed. The bridges were built to give motorists a clear view of the New York City skyline, but with high retaining walls to make it seem as if you are not even crossing a river. The 6,955 ft. Passaic Bridge cost $13.7 million to construct and the 5,623 ft. Hackensack Bridge cost $9.5 million. (Info. from nycroads.com)

The Turnpike in popular culture

The Turnpike, along with the Garden State Parkway, are such heavily travelled through-roads and connect with so many other highways in the state, that upon learning a person is from New Jersey, a common joke response is "What exit?"

In the Chuck Berry song "You Can't Catch Me" (1956), the singer outruns the cops in his Cadillac on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Simon and Garfunkel's song "America" (1968), after describing a long trip across much of the country, concludes with the lines:

"Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike

They've all come to look for America."

The song was subsequently covered by British artists Yes and David Bowie, showing that the mystique of the Turnpike may even extend across the Atlantic.

The 1970 song "Holland Tunnel" by John Phillips included the line: "Pick up a ticket for the New Jersey Turnpike and drive, baby drive."

Bill Cosby references the eating of the New Jersey Turnpike by The Chicken Heart in his comedy album Wonderfulness ("...IT ATE THE JERSEY TURNPIKE!! BOOM BUM!!...")

Bruce Springsteen's album Nebraska (1982) contains the chilling "State Trooper", in which a traveller on the Turnpike, a desperate man who has committed unspecified crimes, prays that he won't be pulled over by the police:

"New Jersey Turnpike

Ridin' on a wet night

'Neath the refinery's glow

Out where the great black rivers flow

License, registration, I ain't got none

But I got a clear conscience

'Bout the things that I done

Mister state trooper

Please don't stop me."

The same song is referenced — as an homage rather than a cover — by the repetition of its first line in the song "Theme From Turnpike" (1996) by the Belgian band dEUS. Springsteen's song Thunder Road is also widely considered to be about the Turnpike.

Bif Naked's song "Sophia" (1999) begins with the lyric "I picked you up on a grey day, the New Jersey Turnpike."

In the 1991 movie Nothing But Trouble, Chevy Chase, Demi Moore, and company, en route to Atlantic City from New York, exit the Turnpike in order to view supposed countryside and subsequently wind up lost in a backwoods section of New Jersey, ultimately fulfilling the film's title. Passenger Bertila Damas suggests the unplanned exit because "this road is such a dull place." This route in itself is a mistake in the film's logic, as New York travelers wishing to go to Atlantic City would naturally choose the Garden State Parkway, which hugs the coastline.

In the film Being John Malkovich (1999), after one becomes John Malkovich and then eventually leaves him, one falls out of the sky next to the New Jersey Turnpike.

The opening to the television series The Sopranos (began 1999) features the main character Tony Soprano driving on the Turnpike.

In the videogame EarthBound, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, after defeating Giygas return to Onett's condemned house at the cliff and enter inside. Then go behind the desk, search and one can find a joke story about a man being pulled over by a cop on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The 1989 book Looking For America On The New Jersey Turnpike (itself taking its title from the Simon and Garfunkel song) chronicles the history of "America's Main Road" and analyzes its place in American culture.

The New Jersey Turnpike drink was created as a joke about the highway. It consists of squeezing a rag into a shot glass that previously had been used to soak up spilled alcohol on the bar.

Rest areas

The New Jersey Turnpike is noted for naming its rest areas after people who lived or worked in New Jersey. From south to north, the rest areas are:

• Clara Barton (southbound, milepost 5.4)
• John Fenwick (northbound, 5.4)
• Walt Whitman (southbound, 30.2)
• James Fenimore Cooper (northbound, 39.4)
• Richard Stockton (southbound, 58.7)
• Woodrow Wilson (northbound, 58.7)
• Molly Pitcher (southbound, 71.7)
• Joyce Kilmer (northbound, 78.7)
• Thomas Edison (southbound, 92.9)
• Grover Cleveland (northbound, 92.9)
• William Halsey (northbound, 102)
• Alexander Hamilton (southbound, eastern spur, 111.6)
• Vince Lombardi (northbound/southbound, 116.0 (eastern spur), 115.5 (western spur))

Even long-time local motorists frequently do not know who some of these people were, or in the case of Kilmer, even what gender they were. (Hint: Kilmer's full name is Alfred Joyce Kilmer.) Contemporary New Jersey writers such as Calvin Trillin and Philip Roth have ruefully commented that they hope they don't get a rest stop named after them once they die.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Looking for America book describes the Edison, Lombardi, and Kilmer rest stops as possible hot spots for heterosexual, homosexual, and prostitution activities respectively.

Turnpike rest areas comprise most of the Roy Rogers fast-food restaurant locations in New Jersey.

Interchanges

See also

• Garden State Parkway

References

• Gillespie, Angus Kress and Rockland, Michael Aaron. Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike. Rutgers University Press, 1989. ISBN 0813514665.
• nycroads.com New Jersey Turnpike Historic Overview

External links

Template:Commons

• New Jersey Turnpike Authority & Garden State Parkway Official Website
• NJ Route 78 Straight Line Diagram
• NJ Route 95 Straight Line Diagram
• NJ Route 95W Straight Line Diagram
• NJ Route 700 Straight Line Diagram
• Traffic Conditions by Telephone: 1-800-33NJTPK (1-800-336-5875).

Template:Njsr boxfr:New Jersey Turnpike sv:New Jersey Turnpike