November 30, 1951: The New Jersey Turnpike Opens

November 30, 1951: The New Jersey Turnpike opens, mostly. For the moment, it runs from Exit 1 in Penns Grove, near the newly-opened Delaware Memorial Bridge, to Exit 11 in Woodbridge, an interchange with U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 9, State Route 440, and, by 1956, the Garden State Parkway. (On that road, that interchange will be Exit 129.)

Like the later Garden State Parkway, the Turnpike was the brainchild of Governor Alfred E. Driscoll. He set a November 30, 1951 deadline, and there were delays that suggested they wouldn't make it. They did.

The Turnpike was extended to its full 117-mile length the next year, connecting with New York City via the Lincoln Tunnel (Exit 16) and the George Washington Bridge (Exit 18). One notable problem was the Pulaski Skyway, which has carried Routes 1 and 9 from Newark to Jersey City since 1932. If they built the Turnpike under the Skyway, there might not be enough room for trucks to fit. If they built the Turnpike over the Skyway, there would be room, but construction would take a lot more time and money. They decided to build under, and no truck has ever gotten stuck under it. Just in case, a few years ago, a big construction project was undertaken, and it lowered the roadway.

In 1956, the Newark Bay Extension opened at Exit 14, near Newark International Airport. This includes the Newark Bay Bridge, and 3 new exits in Jersey City: Exit 14A for Bayonne, Exit 14B for downtown, and Exit 14C for the Holland Tunnel into New York.

That same year, an extension was built from Exit 6 to the new Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge, connecting the New Jersey Turnpike with the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It is named the Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension. From here on north, the New Jersey Turnpike is bannered as part of Interstate 95.

In 1970, the Western Spur was opened, designed to aid travelers going around New York City to New England (taking the Tappan Zee, now Mario Cuomo, Bridge to the New England Thruway). It was also meant to access the planned Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford. The new exits were labeled 15W, 16W and 18W; while the former Exits 15, 16 and 18 were relabeled 15E, 16E and 18E. In 2005, the newest exit opened: Exit 15X, for the Secaucus Junction Rail Station.

The Turnpike has become not just a great method for getting people from one point in New Jersey to another, or from New York to points south and west (or vice versa) without having to go through Philadelphia, but it's become a cultural icon. Chuck Berry, The Mamas & the Papas, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen have all written songs mentioning it. And the opening montage of The Sopranos showed James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, driving out of the Lincoln Tunnel and down the Turnpike.

Of course, for a lot of people not from New Jersey, the Turnpike is all they see of the State: Things like the Meadowlands' stadiums and swamps, the Skyway, the Airport, the big oil refinery in Linden, and vast swaths of not much of anything taking up the space south of Trenton. These people never see the nice parts of New Jersey, and never understand why it's called "The Garden State."

The Turnpike's exit numbers are sequential, not by milepost as the Parkway's will be. As a result, when new exits need to be built, they require letters. Between Exit 7 in Bordentown Township and Exit 8 in East Windsor is Exit 7A in Robbinsville; and between Exit 8 and Exit 9 in East Brunswick is Exit 8A in Monroe.

If the exits were by mileposts, they would be, as follows: 

* Exit 1, Penns Grove, Salem County, connecting with Interstate 295, U.S. Routes 40 and 130, New Jersey Route 49 and the Delaware Memorial Bridge: Exit 0, or Exit 1.

* Exit 2, Woolwich, Gloucester County, U.S. Route 322 and the Commodore Barry Bridge: Exit 13.

* Exit 3, Runnemede, Camden County, N.J. Route 168 and, by extension, the Atlantic City Expressway and the Walt Whitman Bridge to Philadelphia: Exit 26. Oddly, despite the access to the Expressway, this exit, unlike Exits 7A and 11, is not labeled "Shore Points."

* Exit 4, Mount Laurel, Burlington County, N.J. Route 73 and, by extension, the Ben Franklin Bridge to Philadelphia: Exit 34.

* Exit 5, Westampton, Burlington County, County Route 541: Exit 44.

* Exit 6, Mansfield, Burlington County, Interstate 95 and, by extension, Interstate 276 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike: Exit 51.

* Exit 7, Bordentown Township (surrounding Bordentown City), Burlington County, U.S. Route 206: Exit 53.

* Exit 7A, Robbinsville, Mercer County, Interstate 195: Exit 60. This exit can be used for both the State capital of Trenton and the Six Flags Great Adventure theme park. For drivers going north on the Turnpike, this exit is labeled "Shore Points," due to the access to I-195.

* Exit 8, East Windsor, Mercer County, N.J. Routes 33 and 133: Exit 67.

* Exit 8A, Monroe, Middlesex County, N.J. Route 32 for access to U.S. Route 130 and County Route 535: Exit 74. For me, growing up in East Brunswick in the 1970s and '80s, this was the exit we used for southbound points like Philadelphia, Washington and Virginia.

* Exit 9, East Brunswick, Middlesex County, N.J. Route 18 for access to U.S. Route 1: Exit 83. This was the exit we used for North Jersey and New York City. East Brunswick's main bus terminal was here, and, from 1991 to 2020, I lived 1 mile away, for relatively easy access to The City.

* Exit 10, Edison, Middlesex County, Interstate 287 and N.J. Route 440, and, by extension, the Outerbridge Crossing into Staten Island, New York City: Exit 88.

* Exit 11, Woodbridge, Middlesex County, the Garden State Parkway, U.S. Routes 1 and 9: Exit 91. For drivers going south on the Turnpike, this exit is labeled "Shore Points," due to the Parkway access.

* Exit 12, Carteret, Middlesex County, County Route 602: Exit 96.

* Exit 13, Elizabeth, Union County, Interstate 278 and the Goethals Bridge into Staten Island: Exit 99.

* Exit 13A, Elizabeth, Union County, N.J. Route 81 and, by extension, Newark Liberty International Airport and Elizabeth Seaport: Exit 101. It also provides access to the Jersey Gardens Mall and that big IKEA store visible from the road.

* Exit 14, Newark, Essex County, Interstate 78, U.S. Routes 1, 9 and 22, with access to the Airport and the Newark Bay Extension: Exit 104.

* Exit 15E, Newark, Essex County, U.S. Routes 1 and 9, and thus the Pulaski Skyway toward Jersey City: Exit 107.

* Exit 15W, Kearny, Hudson County, Interstate 280: Exit 108. Theoretically, any of Exits 14, 15E or 15W can be used for downtown Newark and the Prudential Center arena. For Red Bull Arena, Exit 15W is the most convenient.

* Exit 15X, Secaucus, Hudson County, the Secaucus Junction Rail Station: Exit 110.

* Exit 16E, Secaucus, Hudson County, N.J. Routes 3 and 495, accessing the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan: Exit 112.

* Exit 16W, East Rutherford, Bergen County, N.J. Route 3 and the Meadowlands Sports Complex: Exit 112.

* Exit 18E and Exit 18W, Carlstadt, Bergen County, Interstates 80 and 95, U.S. Routes 1, 9 and 46: Exit 114.

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November 30, 1951 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. There were 3 college football games played that night:

* The University of Richmond beat George Washington University, 20-19 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The University of Miami beat Nebraska, 19-7 at Burdine Stadium (later renamed the Orange Bowl) in Miami. This would happen a few more times in the decades to come.

* And the University of Houston beat North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), 20-14 at Eagle Field in Denton, Texas.

There was only 1 game played in the NHL that night, at the Montreal Forum, and the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a 0-0 tie. There were 3 games played in the NBA that night:

* In a rematch and a reverse of the previous season's NBA Finals, the New York Knicks beat the Rochester Royals, 79-74 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Syracuse Nationals, 81-78 at the Philadelphia Arena. When the Warriors moved to San Francisco in 1962, the Nationals replaced them a year later, as the Philadelphia 76ers.

* And the Washington Capitols beat the Boston Celtics, 85-81 at the Boston Garden. Ironically, the Celtics had just hired a former Capitols coach, who quit because he didn't have the team owner's backing to acquire what he thought were the necessary players. With Walter Brown, owner of the Garden, the Celtics and the Bruins, and making more money on the Ice Capades than on the rest of it combined, paid for the players his new coach wanted.

That new coach was a native of Brooklyn, but went to George Washington University, and seemed at first to be a natural to coach the Caps. And, for the rest of his life, despite being involved with the Celtics in one capacity or another, he kept his home in Washington. He was Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach.

November 14, 1963: The John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway Opens

Left to right: Governor Elbert Carvel of Delaware,

President John F. Kennedy, and Governor J. Millard Tawes of Maryland

November 14, 1963: President John F. Kennedy dedicates the opening of Interstate 95 at the Delaware-Maryland State Line, along with the Governors of the States involved, J. Millard Tawes of Maryland and Elbert N. Carvel of Delaware.

Just 8 days later, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. On December 17, the States of Maryland and Delaware named their sections of I-95 the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway. Delaware kept the Delaware Turnpike name, which had been in place since the road opened in 1956.

The Delaware Turnpike runs 11 miles from the Pennsylvania State Line to the Maryland State Line. From there, it runs 110 miles, to the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Thruway. South of that, I-95 no longer carries the JFK name.

I-95 -- including its more northern sections, such as the Delaware Expressway in Philadelphia, the New Jersey Turnpike, the New England Thruway in New York, and the Connecticut Turnpike -- essentially killed the old Pennsylvania Railroad, as people began driving up and down the Northeast Corridor, between the cities of Boston, Providence, New Haven, New York, Newark, New Brunswick, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore and Washington.

As a result, rest areas became critical. The Delaware Welcome Center, now named the Biden Welcome Center after the State's most successful politician, opened in Newark, Delaware in 1963. So did the Maryland House in Aberdeen. The Chesapeake House opened in North East, Maryland in 1975. These plazas were demolished and replaced: The one in Delaware in 2010, and the two in Maryland in 2014.

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November 14, 1963 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 2 games played in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 123-115 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Terry Dischinger scored 36 points for the Bullets. And the St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 117-105 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Cliff Hagan scored 38. Wilt Chamberlain had 34 points and 22 rebounds for the Warriors.

And 1 game was played in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New York Rangers. 5-4 at the old Madison Square Garden.

June 29, 1956: The Interstate Highway System

June 29, 1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, creating the Interstate Highway System.

"Ike" had wanted such a highway system for America since the Summer of 1919, when, as a 28-year-old Lieutenant Colonel, he participated in the U.S. Army's first Transcontinental Motor Convoy across the country. The convoy left the Ellipse south of the White House in Washington on July 7, and went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. From there, it got on the Lincoln Highway, and went to the Presidio, the Army base in San Francisco.

But there were mudpatches that vehicles got stuck in, and bad bridges that the Army rebuilt on the spot, on the federal government's dime. The convoy reached San Francisco on September 6 -- 61 days later. Two months to cross the country. Ike thought that was unacceptable.

The Federal Highway System was begun in 1926, with proper paving. But Ike didn't think it was enough: He wanted highways without traffic lights, without having to go through big cities or small towns, rather providing access to local roads leading into them. As a General in World War II, he had seen the Germans' Autobahn system. In a book he wrote after leaving office, he said, "The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land." 

Ike got his bill, sponsored in the House of Representatives by George Fallon of Maryland, and in the Senate by Albert Gore of Tennessee, both Democrats.

Though Eisenhower is sometimes described as having advocated for the highways for the purpose of national defense, scholarship has shown that he said relatively little about national defense when actually advocating for the plan, instead emphasizing highway fatalities and the importance of transportation for the national economy. In the event of a ground invasion by a foreign power, the U.S. Army would need good highways to be able to transport troops and material across the country efficiently. Following the completion of the highways, the cross-country journey that took the convoy two months in 1919 was cut down to five days.

The 1st time I visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, in September 1985, the biggest part of the trip was up the New York State Thruway, bannered from The Bronx to Albany as Interstate 87 (and from there on west as Interstate 90), and as I went north, I saw several military vehicles heading south. Being that Ronald Reagan was President, and that this was only a year after he joked, "We begin bombing in five minutes," I thought, "Oh, no, World War III is starting, before I can ever see Cooperstown." But nothing terrible happened that weekend.

The numbered system followed a pattern: North-South highways would be odd-numbered, increasing the further East you went; while East-West highways would be even-numbered, increasing the further North. Thus, my home State of New Jersey has Interstates 76, 78 and 80 going west to east; and 95 going south to north.

Three-digited highways have a system as well. If starting with an odd number, they are spurs to main highways: Thus, Interstate 195 extends east from I-95, to the Jersey Shore. If starting with an even number, they are "beltways," going around a major city. Thus, Interstate 278 forms the Belt Parkway around Brooklyn and Queens, with an extension into New Jersey; and Interstate 287 loops around New York City within New Jersey, before linking up with I-87; and Interstate 295 loops around Trenton and Philadelphia, before crossing into Delaware over the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

The New Jersey Turnpike is bannered as I-95 from Exit 6 on north. But neither the Garden State Parkway nor the Atlantic City Expressway is part of the Interstate System.

While some older freeways were adopted into the system, most of the routes were completely new. In dense urban areas, the choice of routing destroyed many well-established neighborhoods, often intentionally as part of a program of "urban renewal." In the 20 years following the 1956 Highway Act, the construction of the freeways displaced over 1 million people. This resulted in new forms of racial segregation, as "the wrong side of the tracks" became "the wrong side of the freeway."

The Cross Bronx Expressway cut through Bronx neighborhoods, devastating the Borough. And the New Jersey Turnpike cut sections of Newark and Elizabeth off from the rest of those cities, hurting them badly. Both roads became part of I-95. And I-676, the Vine Street Expressway, seriously messed with Center City Philadelphia.

Many of the Interstates paralleled older Federal highways. Examples: I-95, U.S. Route 1; I-87 in New York, U.S. Route 9; I-90 in New York and the Midwest, U.S. Route 20; I-84 in the Northeast, U.S. Route 6; I-5 in California, U.S. Route 101. The famous U.S. Route 66 was essentially replaced by I-10, I-15 and I-40 in California; I-40 from San Bernardino to Oklahoma City; I-44 from OKC to St. Louis; and I-55 from St. Louis to Chicago.

Many communities on Federal highways like Route 66 got bypassed, and suffered economically as a result, since people waited until the next big city to get off and eat and/or use the bathroom, or get a place to stay the night, instead of the next town coming up. Route 66 in particular had several quirky motels or "motor courts" with Wild West or Native American themes. Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, although some States rebannered their sections as State Route 66. There is an Interstate 66, but it runs mainly in Washington, D.C. and its Virginia suburbs, and again from Kentucky west to Kansas.

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June 29, 1956 was a Friday. Dominican baseball All-Star Pedro Guerrero was born. And actress Marilyn Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller. Each would end up married 3 times, and divorced 3 times.

And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Bob Grim outpitched Pedro Ramos. Mickey Mantle had an odd batting line: No hits in no official at-bats, but 4 walks. Yogi Berra went 0-for-4. The Senators' only run came on a home run by ex-Yankee Clint Courtney. Harmon Killebrew was a rookie with the Senators, but did not get into this game.

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Vern Law outpitched Jim Hearn. Roberto Clemente and Lee Walls hit home runs for the Bucs, while Willie Mays went 1-for-4 for the Jints.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Ebbets Field. A rookie named Don Drysdale, in only his 10th appearance, started for the Dodgers. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Dem Bums scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th to stun the Phils: Jim Gilliam drew a leadoff walk, Pee Wee Reese struck out, and then came 3 straight home runs, by Duke Snider, Randy Jackson and Gil Hodges. This made a winning pitcher out of Clem Labine. Jackie Robinson, in his final season, went 0-for-2 before being lifted for a pinch-hitter.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-6 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Jackie Jensen went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs. Ted Williams went 0-for-1, but, like Mantle drew 4 walks. Rookie Brooks Robinson did not get into the game for the O's.

* A doubleheader was split at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Cleveland Indians won the opener, 5-2. Herb Score outpitched Jim Wilson. The Chicago White Sox won the nightcap, 13-2. Billy Pierce went the distance for the win, while Bob Lemon didn't get out of the 2nd inning.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Braves, 8-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks and Pete Whisenant homered for the Cubs. Johnny Logan hit one for the Braves. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 1-for-4. Rookie Frank Robinson went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Billy Hoeft outpitched Tommy Lasorda, who was appearing in his 24th major league game, and would only pitch in 2 more. He would be back as a coach and a manager. He gave up 2 home runs to Charlie Maxwell, and 1 to Al Kaline.