Pennsylvania Turnpike

This 360-mile (580 km) highway allows an optional way of paying called E-ZPass, in which tolls are paid electronically through a transponder attached to the car behind its rear-view mirror or attached to the front bumper.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is part of the U.S. Interstate Highway System, and is signed with the following route numbers:

The majority of the turnpike is operated as a ticket system toll road, in which a driver receives a paper ticket on entry and pays on exit, with the amount pre-calculated based on entrance and exit points. Most of the system's access points are simple "trumpet" interchanges, with a toll barrier located between the interchange and the local connector road. Between 1957 and 1997, the road had three "mainline" barrier plazas, one at Gateway (at the Pennsylvania/Ohio state line), connecting to the Ohio Turnpike, one at the Delaware River Bridge near Bristol Township, where the turnpike crosses the Delaware River and connects with the New Jersey Turnpike, and one on the Northeastern Extension at Clarks Summit, where it connects with Interstate 81 near Scranton.

Fares range from a low as 95 cents from one exit to the next, to as much as over $20 in long distance travel. As of August 2009, the fare for a two-axle automobile traveling the entire Turnpike westbound from the Warrendale Gate to the end of the Turnpike at the Delaware River Bridge into New Jersey, 328 miles away, costs $24.45, or by traveling from Warrendale to the Wyoming Valley exit at the end of the Northeast Extension (at 441 miles) costs $28.75.

The turnpike is equipped with a callbox at each mile for its entire length. Motorists may also dial *11 on their mobile phones. First responder services are available to all turnpike customers via the State Farm Safety Patrol program.

When the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in 1940, it was built to higher design standards and extended over a longer distance than other limited-access divided highways in the United States. It was popularly known as the "tunnel highway" because of the seven mountain tunnels along its route.

Proposals to use the grade and tunnels for a toll road were made starting in late 1934. The road would bypass the steep grades on Pennsylvania's existing major east-west highways â€“ US 22 (William Penn Highway) and US 30 (Lincoln Highway) â€“ and offer a high-speed four lane route free of cross traffic. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission was created by law on May 21, 1937, and construction began October 27, 1938 with the removal of water from the unfinished tunnels. The 160-mile (260 km) roadway took 770,000 tons of sand, 1,200,000 tons of stone, 50,000 tons of steel, and more than 300,000 tons of cement to complete. It was built at a cost of $370,000 per mile.

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