According to PeriscopeFilm, producer of the Video of the Day, after it opened, the New Jersey Turnpike quickly became the nation’s 6th-busiest toll road and one of the most heavily traveled highways in the U.S.
“The Turnpike has 12-foot-wide lanes, 10-foot-wide shoulders, 13 rest areas named after notable residents of New Jersey, and unusual exit signage that was considered the pinnacle of highway building in the 1950s,” the producers report. “The Interstate Highway System took some of its design guidelines by copying the Turnpike’s design guidelines. To some degree, the Turnpike is considered iconic in pop culture, having been referenced in music, film and television.
The video includes lots of 1950s’ era vehicles and the audio cuts out from time to time, but it nonetheless provides what at the time was seen as a transportation utopia.
“Drive into a new world,” we’re told, “a world without stop lights.”
