In 1953, when the Interstate System was in its infancy, Gustave and Marg Martens drove from New York City to West Virgina for the Hunt Family Reunion. They rarely made lengthy car trips, so coming down this novel type of roadway with its numerous and unusually long tunnels must have made a strong impression on them. Gustave would not have wasted his movie film otherwise. (Marg shot the footage while Gus drove).

The Pennsylvania Turnpike made history when it opened in 1940. With lanes designed to carry non-stop, high-speed traffic for several hundred miles across an entire state, it was America's first interstate thruway in the modern sense of the word. (The only comparable expressway at that time was in Hitler's Germany!) The Pennsylvania Turnpike set the standard for all future American highways to follow.

Getting through the Allegheny Mountains that stood in the way necessitated the construction of nine seperate tunnels, subsequently dubbed "The Eighth Wonders of the World" on souvenir maps and the like. Hyperbole aside, they were remarkable feats of engineering in their day.

Originally, each tunnel had a single tube that force-merged the highway's four lanes into two. Today every tunnel has two tubes, one for each direction. In the 1960's sections of the turnpike were rerouted, resulting in the closing and abandonment of several tunnels, including Ray's Hill.