The New Jersey Turnpike has been named a landmark.
No kidding.
The New Jersey Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers presented the Turnpike Authority a bronze plaque recognizing the Turnpike as a New Jersey historic civil engineering landmark.
I wonder what took them so long?

True, part of the Turnpike runs through a foul-smelling, sometimes surreal industrial landscape. But the Turnpike was never meant to be a wooded Sunday-drive parkway. In 1948, the New Jersey governor and Legislature wanted a brawny road to move heavy traffic from Hudson River crossings in the north to Delaware River crossings in the south – in other words, from New York City to Philadelphia, then the first and fourth largest cities in the country. So they pretty much drew a straight line.
Then they built a damn good highway.
According to a Turnpike Authority press release, many of the design and safety standards used for the original construction between 1949 and 1952 became a model for the Interstate Highway System years later.
From Exit 9 (New Brunswick) south, engineers designed the highway for 75-mph traffic. From Exit 9 north, 70 mph was the design criteria. The road designers called for 12-foot-wide lanes (still among the widest anywhere) and 10-foot-wide shoulders. Grades were kept to a maximum of 3 percent, curves to a minimum radius of 3,000 feet.
Most Turnpike interchange ramps pass over the main roadway so exit ramps where exiting motorists must slow down are on an upgrade; entrance ramps where entering traffic must accelerate are on a downgrade. Those ramps are 1,200 feet long, which is now a highway building standard.
The Turnpike features three major bridges, two over the Passaic River and another over the Hackensack River. All three soar 130 feet over the navigable waters below and offer spectacular views of New York City and the North Jersey Meadowlands.
So political, administrative and E-ZPass problems aside, the Turnpike deserves the recognition it has finally gotten.
By the way, you can learn lots more about the Turnpike and other New York area highways at a fascinating web site, www.nycroads.com, maintained by highway historian Steve Anderson.