[PRCo] Re: Russian___PCCs

[Fred Schneider]

Oh, it was built as one of Pennsylvania's suicide highways, was it?    
A middle lane for playing chicken!    I had forgotten that even  
though I drove that road in the 1940s.

  Boris needs to understand that modern highway engineering in the  
1930s called for a central passing lane that everyone could use in  
both directions.   Motorists were presumed to be intelligent until it  
was discovered that there was a chilling tendency for two of them to  
try to pass in opposing directions all too often.     As time passed,  
the middle lanes became either left turn only lanes or were  
restricted to passing in one direction only.   And often, as traffic  
became even heavier, a solid yellow line often was painted down the  
middle of the center lane to prevent the impatient drivers from  
passing (the Federal government refers to it as a "traffic calming"  
method).

The chronology (and my friend Ed will tell me if I'm incorrect and  
with my appreciation) was a two-lane asphalt, crowned road from  
Pittsburgh to Washington via the West End, Carnegie, Bridgeville,  
Morganza, Canonsburg, Houston, and Meadowlands.   This was the  
original numbered US route 19.   My father remembers using that road  
to get to Pittsburgh in the early 1930s to "court" my mother.  It was  
probably paved sometime in the early to middle 1920s.   There was  
also, until 1940, the Washington cinder road, that roughly paralleled  
the present US 19, and actually passes Ed's property.  (I'd like to  
hear Ed's commentary on how often the cinder road was dressed with  
fresh cinders and regraded.)   Note there was no paved road near the  
trolley line through much of the area of far northern Washington  
County and far southern Allegheny County before 1940.   Pittsburgh  
Railways had the territory to itself, but, with no roads, there were  
few homes ... a farm here and there.   The population then was over  
along old route 19 and the even earlier Pennsylvania Railroad.

Then in 1940 the three lane (as EHL corrected me) concrete highway  
was built from Washington to Mount Lebanon, replacing the Washington  
cinder road.   Now there are five lanes from Washington to Pittsburgh  
(if you want to consider North Main St. as an option).  This  
relegated the old Pittsburgh Pike - Morganza Road - Washington Pike  
route (the old US 19) to virtual obscurity as a local road.  (Obscure  
unless you have to fight traffic on it.)   I think it might have been  
in the 1950s that US 19 became five lanes.  Ed knows.   I believe  
this also allowed Blue Ridge buses (part of the West Penn Electric  
empire) to directly compete with the trolleys.

Then, in the early 1960s, Interstate 79 was built, four lanes wide  
(and six lanes north of Bridgeville) in the same corridor as the  
original US 19.  In the same corridor means within one mile, and  
often no more than 1/2 mile.

So now, where we had 2 lanes of roadway in 1930, a commuter railroad  
(the Pennsy ran passenger trains until 1952) and an interurban until  
1953, we now have 11 to 13 highway lanes of traffic.

And please do not ask Mrs. Janis Lybarger if the road capacity is  
adequate.   They've been working on I-79 and ruining her commute to  
Ambridge lately.   But before anyone tells me just how wonderful  
trains were, lets go back and look at the 1930 Official Guide.    
Leave Morganza at 6:20 AM on the first morning northbound train  
arrive Pittsburgh 7:19, Leave Pittsburgh 8:05 and arrive Ambridge  
8:40 and get balled out for being late for work.   Leave Ambridge at  
5:20 PM get into Pittsburgh at 5:55 just in time to miss a train to  
Washington, and wait for the next one at 7:59 which gets you into  
Morganza at 8:51.   And then there is the trolley ride from Morganza  
to home or the two mile walk.   The drive home sucks but the train  
would have been worse.     In those days your employment sphere was a  
lot smaller geographic circle!

John Swindler should explain to us some of his early research from  
the Monongahela area papers about travel in the county.   The Mon  
Valley towns were virtually isolated from the Washington County seat  
for many years, and if you had business in Washington (for example,  
if you were called to jury duty in Washington, Pa.)  and lived in  
Charleroi or Monongahela before the trolley ... WELL JOHN, YOU  
EXPLAIN HOW THEY GOT THERE.    IT'S A CHARMING STORY.

On Oct 25, 2005, at 7:47 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> It was actually three lanes in 1940.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of  
> Fred
> Schneider
> Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 6:51 PM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Russian___PCCs
>
>
> And the new highway gradually evolved from two bright white concrete
> lanes in 1940 to five lanes today while the interurban disappeared.
> Public choice.
>
> On Oct 25, 2005, at 2:54 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
>
>