Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Pennsylvania Turnpike

highway, Pennsylvania, United States

News •

The rare construction method used by the Pa. Turnpike to replace a Western Pa. bridge • Nov. 7, 2026, 4:00 AM ET (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Pennsylvania Turnpike to use open-road tolling in 2027 • Nov. 6, 2026, 6:44 PM ET (CBS)
2 killed in single-vehicle crash along Pa. Turnpike in Westmoreland County • Nov. 5, 2026, 7:48 AM ET (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
‘A good day’: Officials celebrate next two sections of the Mon-Fayette Expressway • Oct. 27, 2026, 5:53 PM ET (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Pennsylvania Turnpike, one of the earliest major limited-access express highways in the United States, opened in 1940 as a state-run toll road running through the Allegheny Mountains and connecting Harrisburg in the east to Pittsburgh in the west. The highway was later extended 100 miles (160 km) east to Philadelphia and the Delaware River and 67 miles (107 km) west to the Ohio state line, making it 359 miles (574 km) long. The turnpike is now paralleled to the north by Interstate 80, a federal highway known in Pennsylvania as the Keystone Shortway.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.