Iconic Piece Of New York Turned 70 This Week

This week an iconic piece of New York State turned the Big 7-0.

On June 24th, the New York Thruway turned celebrated its 70th anniversary.

It was way back in 1954 that the New York Thruway was first opened to the public and at the time it was the longest toll road in the entire world.

READ MORE: MORE REST STOPS ALONG THE THRUWAY ARE OPENING UP AROUND NEW YORK STATE

Today, the Thruway is made up of 570 miles of road and is currently the longest toll road in America. According to the New York State DOT, in 2023 travelers drove over 8.1 billion of miles along the Thruway making over 380 million trips.

Back on June 24th, 1954 a 115-mile stretch of the Thruway from Lowell to Rochester, was opened to the public. The entire Thruway would officially be opened to the public on December 23, 1960.

READ MORE: BIG CHANGES COULD BE COMING TO CHICK-FIL-A LOCATED AT REST STOPS ALONG THE THRUWAY IN NEW YORK

The first toll collector was hired in 1951 and started to work at the Grand Island Bridge toll booth. Since then more than 12,000 men and women served as toll collectors on the Thruway before EZ-PASS and Toll Booth free zones were constructed.

On average over $800 million dollar annually are collected in tolls along the Thruway. Officials with the Thruway expect that number to increase by at least 7% by 2030 as trips and travelers are expected to increase every year.

The latest project along the thruway is re-doing and updating the travel plazas. Several new plazas have been constructed while other ones were upgraded.

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So this week as you travel along the Thruway, you might want to sing "Happy Birthday" and wish it a happy 70th.