# CONSTRUCTION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE 77994MD

This documentary, produced by the Portland Cement Association, describes the construction and utility of The Pennsylvania Turnpike, completed October, 1940, was a landmark construction project completed in that served as the grandfather of the interstate highway system. The planning process began in the 1920s as automobiles rose in popularity. After the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s and President Franklin Roosevelt’s establishment of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in order to employ the homeless, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission was established to create the highway. The Turnpike was the longest uninterrupted road in America at the time it was completed and contained several mountain tunnels, a feat thought unattainable at the time. The Turnpike laid the groundwork for the Interstate Highway System by proving that large-scale construction projects supported by the government could be effectively implemented and useful to the public at large 0:21 shows a nice areal shot of the Turnpike with cars running down it. Band music plays in the background, and the narrator discusses the importance of the highway. 0:47 gives a list of the names of the members of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, including Chairman Walter A. Jones, Frank Bebout, Charles, T. Carpenter, Thomas J. Evans, Lamont Hughes, and others. Chairman Jones was born in Pittsburgh, and proved to be integral to the project by using his political heft to interest President Roosevelt in the…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/77994PennsylvaniaTurnpikeMD)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/77994PennsylvaniaTurnpikeMD?play=1)