[PRCo] Re: WP

[robert netzlof]

--- Derrick J Brashear <shadow at dementia.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Jan 2005, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
> 
> > I was speaking of the original alignment of the Lincoln Highway
> (the new
> > one's just "Route 30").  I still drive it from time to
> time...it's a whole
> > lot easier than the stop lights out on the new road.  But it (the
> old one)
> > was truncated at PA 981 to accommodate the construction of the
> > airport...there was also a PRR branch (Unity) that was eliminated
> when it
> > was built.  It served the coke plants at Baggaley, Shirey,
> Hostetter,
> > Whitney, Jamison 20 and Ellen 2.
> 
> The Unity Branch was truncated later, for airport expansion. Was
> the 
> Lincoln Highway also cut later than the airport opened?

Some dates:

1913 Lincoln Highway established

1924 Longvue Flying Field established. This was the precurser of the
Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

1925 System of numbered highways established.

1928 Boys Scouts install concrete Lincoln Highway markers

According to a photo at: 

http://www.gribblenation.com/swparoads/essays/lincoln.html

one of these markers still exists along what I've always called Old
30 between Youngstown and the airport. Thus, the relocation of US 30
was after 1928.

1932 US 30/Lincoln Highway relocated between Greensburg and Latrobe,
and at Latrobe "to avoid the airport". See:

www.pahighways.com/USHwys/US30.html

I've attached a marked-up map of the area (thanks, Topozone). The
orange smudge to the left of center is my recollection of the area
occupied by the original airport. Yes, the runways were much shorter
then.

As best I can recall, by 1945 or so, one could not travel the
original Lincoln Highway west of PA 981. I'll go farther and say "as
long as I can remember", but that only pushes it a very few years
closer to the dawn of time.

But yes, the Unity Branch and the original airport co-existed for 3
or 4 decades. I'm not sure when the new, improved airport was built.
And yes, there was at least one expansion since then. I think the
Unity Branch went away with the first round of post-WW2 construction
but I'm not sure.

=====
Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob



		
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