Foot Passengers & Livestock Welcomed
on 19th Century Turnpikes
"Six Cents Per Score
of Sheep or Hogs Was the Toll"
By Kay Jenkins Rew
Early in the 19th century, Westmoreland County Associate Justice Colonel John Irwin, recognizing the need for a structured roadway, assisted in creating the Pittsburgh to Greensburg Turnpike. The roadway ran through Adamsburg, Strawpump, past the Colonel's home on Brush Hill Road in Irwin, as well as his brother's house on Verdant Drive, then through Jacksonville (Jacktown), Circleville and Turtle Creek.
A turnpike (or pike) is a long pole that straddles the roadway in order to block travelers from gaining access without paying. After fees were collected, the gateman turned the key, lifted one end of the pole, and allowed traffic to enter the turnpike.
Tolls were earmarked to pay for grading the dirt road and building simple wooden bridges that enabled customers to cross streams. In order to make swampy areas passable, logs were cut and laid across the road.
In 1817, the popular toll road was expanded to reach from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. (It is speculated that the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Turnpike was located in approximately the same area as the current Lincoln Highway, Route 30.)
Carriages and riders on horseback were not the only patrons of the simplistic roadway. Customers on foot as well as sheep herders and their flocks utilized this new and improved pathway that spanned across Pennsylvania. Turnpike fees varied from 6-cents per score (twenty animals) of sheep or hogs, and 12-cents for every score of cattle, to carts and wagons whose wheels exceeded 8-inches in breadth having free access (see rate schedule).
Travelers who could afford to pay $20.00 had the option of hiring a stagecoach for their east/west journeys. Coaches held up to nine passengers and were pure luxury transportation in the 19th century. The rich interiors were lined with velvet and iron springs gave customers a smoother ride than buggies and wagons. Coach drivers, who earned 37-cents per 12-hour day, changed teams of horses approximately every ten miles. The drivers and travelers took breaks at roadside inns that were located along the route.
Even with the new roadway, life was hard in the early 19th century. One historical report tells the story of a stagecoach driver identified as James Black. In the winter of 1815, Black stopped to water his cold and weary horses. He then drove the stagecoach and it's passengers to the Jacktown Hotel. After arriving at the inn, the passengers noted that Black didn't jump down from his driver's seat to help them exit the coach. Upon further investigation, they found that James Black had frozen to death.
With the birth of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1852, the turnpike became obsolete. Trains carried passengers from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, offering more comfort and greater speed. By 1869, railroads had grown by leaps and bounds and railway passengers could travel throughout Pennsylvania, as well as much of the United States.
On October 1, 1940 at 12:01 a.m., hundreds of excited customers waited in line at both the Irwin and Carlisle Interchanges in order to be among the first to drive the original 160-mile span of the nation's first superhighway.
From such humble beginnings, modern turnpikes have grown to offer travelers everything from a wide variety of restaurants within their numerous rest stops, to Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). Thanks to engineering technology, tunnels enable roadways to run through mountains instead of over them. Bridges span both major and minor waterways. Modern engineering offers drivers the freedom to quickly and comfortably drive to the four corners of the United States and points beyond.