The Pennsylvania Turnpike was in fact a railroad before it became a highway. In the 1880s railroad mogul Cornelius Vanderbilt began to build a railroad to compete with the Pennsylvania Railroad. The new “South Pennsylvania Railroad” was to link the capitol city of Harrisburg and the industrial center of Pittsburgh 160 miles to the west. Initially ten tunnels were partially dug through the mountains of central Pennsylvania before the project was abandoned in 1885.

Nearly 50 years later in 1937, to make use of seven of the partially dug tunnels, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission turned the tunnels into a highway. In October of 1940 the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened, allowing a gateway of people to access roads to the west. On a daily basis, people began to travel through the Blue Mountain, Kittatinny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, Sideling Hill, Rays Hill, Allegheny Mountain, and Laurel Hill. However, after 10 years of existence the highways became so overcrowded that traffic crawled to a halt on most days. The problem was that the tunnels were initially built for railroads and were built were too narrow for a highway. As such, the tunnels through the Blue, Kittatinny, Tuscarora, and Allegheny mountains were expanded through the “twinning” process, where a second, parallel, two-lane tunnel was created. The other tunnels were forgotten….abandoned. A bypass was build to avoid the 13 miles stretch of highway which still stands today and is visited by multiple tourists, including bikers.

Since being abandoned, multiple stories have emerged around hauntings of the tunnels. It was said that in the mid 1980’s gangs or occult groups would hide in the tunnels, waiting for bikers or hikers to attack. The groups then used these victims as sacrificial offerings. The most infamous of the tunnels being the Laurel Hill Tunnel. Today it is said that if you travel through the tunnels you will hear disembodied voices that echo. The tunnels will be icy cold as a result of the long lost spirits looking for a way out. Others talk about strange lights that can be seen within the tunnel as you approach. There is no electricity or power, yet lights, similar to flashlights can be seen shining within.

The tunnels are also said to be home to a Wendigo. Known as a half-man & half-beast creature from Native American folklore, the Algonquian tribe believed those who indulged in eating human flesh were transformed into a beast that would live forever. Thought to be one of many which exist in the US, it is believed to have come down from Canada and found refuge in the tunnels. Those who have seen the creature and lived say that it looks like a gaunt skeleton, covered in grey flesh and red eyes that peek out from the tunnels. It will forever roam the woods looking for its next meal.

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Robyn

Scare Score

I went here about 3 years ago and didn’t know about the legends, my brothers and I were thinking about going back this summer and I’ve been thinking about this a lot
lately- when I went I remember biking on one lane and on the other seeing a couple holding hands walking in the opposite direction. It was a fat bald man in a white t shirt and khaki shorts and a beautiful woman in a red 1950’s style dress, black hair, and a sun hat, they were both white and neither of them had faces. I passed by some brush and then they were gone. I haven’t read anything on the internet about a ghost couple at the turnpike or something like that, I was wondering if anyone ever saw something similar? I didn’t feel threatened or uneasy by them it was all very calm actually but very mysterious and odd.
2 years ago
rachel

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we were walking around 5 we got to the tunnel & we didn’t even go 1000 feet in because we all heard someone breathing from one of the abandoned office rooms & then walking on the way back we saw a skin walker crouched down in the brushes
2 years ago
Jonny

Scare Score

The first time me and my wife visited this place we had no idea that there were stories of it being haunted or anything, we just really enjoy exploring abandoned places. During our first walk down one of the tunnels, we couldn’t believe how dark and cold it was but we thought it was awesome – until we got halfway down the tunnel. I’m a very logical thinking person and I don’t believe in the paranormal. But this experience has made me question everything I thought I knew. We started to hear loud scratching sounds coming from in front of us. Being curious, we started walking further up when my flashlight beam fell on several cement barricades in the tunnel. Then I saw motion out of the corner of my eye. Behind the barriers was a figure hunched over with a dark dirty blanket covering its back. My first thought was that it could be a homeless person until I actually saw how large it was bent over. It was scratching something into the floor and never even bothered to turn around which struck me as odd until the reality of the situation started to set in. I could see that it’s skin was grey and dead looking. All I know it that it was much too big to be human. While I stood in horror not being able to move, my wife was so scared that she turned around and started to run away without me (lol thanks babe) I don’t ever think I’ve ran so fast in my life. We left as soon as we got out of the tunnel. A few months passed and we always told this story to our friends. Curiosity finally got the best of us and we went back yesterday with one of our friends.
After reading up on this place, we discovered there were lots of stories about a wendigo around that region and I wanted to try and get this thing on camera. We parked at a
different entrance this time since it was supposed to be closer to the
tunnels but we ended up at the a different tunnel instead so we figured we’d explore. We reached the other end of the tunnel without seeing anything out of the ordinary so we
decided to go up to the top and see if we could get inside the buildings.
Instead what we found at the top were two goths in the middle of what we could only guess was some sort or
ritual complete with an alter, a hex, and someone’s PA sweat jacket. They immediately got up and walked away refusing to even look at us after we tried to say hi. Then we saw everything they had set up and after snapping a few pictures of the alter, we once again got out of there quick. I don’t know why, but it seems like really creepy and unexplainable things go on in those tunnels. I don’t think we will ever go back again.
2 years ago
Angel

Scare Score

The first time I have been at the turnpike, I was with a group of friends and my boyfriend. We walked through the woods to get to the main road that led to the turnpike. People have told me if you throw a rock into the tunnel it’ll come back. Apparently it’s a little girl who died in a car accident when the turnpike was still active. So we decided to throw some rocks to see if they would come back. We turned our flashlights off and listened. And all of a sudden the rock came back and we all freaked out. Which I don’t do paranormal stuff so I ran out of the little bit of tunnel we went into. Once we all were close together and talking we heard someone screaming ‘help me,’ it sounded like it was in the woods. When we heard that we all started running back to the car. The screams continued for 20 some minutes. As we were running we came across a huge porcupine crossing the abandoned street. But after it crossed we got back to the car and left. Then a week later we all decided to go back, which was one of the most scary decisions ever. We arrived there around 1:30, and it was a full moon. The walk there was peaceful, but once we got close to the entrance the craziness started. As we approached the tunnel there looked to be a dark figure standing in the middle of the tunnel, when we flashed the lights on it, it disappeared, every time we moved our flashlights away it was there. We just thought it might just be a shadow so we continued on our way. We again started throwing rocks, the first rock that was thrown came back. We had our flashlights off and it looked like colorful orbs all around us. But then it got creepy, the last time we threw a rock we heard a woman moaning and crying, it honestly sounded like the witch from Left for Dead. There was no one around and it sounded super close, we all froze, looked at each other and sprinted out of the tunnel. We turned around and looked back and there was light shining out of the tunnel, it looked like flashes of lightning. Then all of a sudden a creature popped out behind the door leading to the one room that we were in before we even threw rocks. The creature had these long fingers that draped around the door, the face looked like a skeleton corpse, it was very pale. It had to be around 6ft. The eyes were sunken in and it was pale gray. It was super fast. Everyone was freaking out. I looked it up afterwards and it looks exactly like a windigo. Maybe 7 minutes later as we discussed what we were gonna do there was red lights in the tunnel that looked like car lights, it looked as if it swerved off the road and it disappeared. My one friend was saying he felt bad energy and we needed to leave asap, he’s a very spiritual person. Then my other friend decided to say to the turnpike ‘if you want us to leave show us a sign.’ No one knew he said this until after we left. But we felt hands on us, my spiritual friend started freaking out saying he felt hands all over him and all of a sudden he completely changed, his eyes looked dead and he tried to run back into the turnpike after begging us all to leave. And I know he would never do anything like this because when he senses bad energy he freaks out. He kept saying he’s lost, he’s cold and he’s lonely. It was not him, he was crying and every time we flashed our flashlights in his face and he didn’t even move or flinch. We drug him back with us as we left. Our one friend called us and they kept calling his name but he didn’t even acknowledge them. We honestly didn’t know what to do. We finally all got to the car and left. My friend started acting normal again once we left the premises but was adamant about getting sage to clean the spirits off of us. He told me when he got home he was woke up and it appeared to be a black silhouette of a little boy. He says the whole family was attached to him and it was the little girls family that died in the car accident. I never believed in this kind of stuff till this night. I have never been so scared in my life. So for you skeptical people, if you really want to witness the craziest stuff, go to the abandoned turnpike during a full moon and around 1-3 in the morning, because that’s when all the spirits are super active. But I don’t recommend it. Especially knowing that what we saw look at us was a Windigo….
3 years ago
mary

Scare Score

this was back, in the 1980 my boy friend and me went to the turnpike tunnel and we saw dead hole deer. walk to the tunnel and what i saw i was scare an so was my boyfriend . it was tall could not see the body all you see was the eyesthey look like foil when you shine a light on them buy the eyes look like they were xraying you when we moved it moved we got it just inside tunnel tha was before dark the sun was not up this was summer time there is something liveing in there
3 years ago
Brooklynn

Scare Score

I was there with a few of my friends because we had had nothing to do that day and we lived somewhat close to it. We went about 3:30 pm and was there for about 3 hours it probably wasn’t until about 4:45 that things started to get really creepy… We where at the 3rd tunnel and started to hear long screams that sounded like a women getting killed or something but me and my friends continued anyway, once we got to the 4th tunnel we saw a blinking light it wasn’t consistent blinking but it was every few seconds. Then I swear I heard laughing/crying i’m unsure of what it was but it was really creepy me and my friends decided to go back and not go to any other tunnels just in cases if we ran into someone who didn’t want our company
3 years ago
Dylan

Scare Score

I am not sure if this Paige is still used but I have been there at night with 3 other friends and have seen blue lights flashing not to any certain pattern, we have herd a bloody murder scream of a women dying closer then the bridge right before the tunnel but the scream never echoed. The light were off during the scream and after the scream the light approached us and came towards us. Then disappeared for 10 seconds and reappeared from where it started. We were to scared to stay and left. Also while walking down the road we saw a house on the left that looked like somebody lived there. Lights in the windows and a car in the driveway that looks like it’s taken care of but old. With a street light on. This is the only Paige that talks about possible legends there. Thought I would share because ever since this I have been thinking and wondering about the truth.
3 years ago
Madison Eutzy

Scare Score

cool
4 years ago
Anonymous

Scare Score

Does the beast whistle?
5 years ago

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Haunted Places, Legends and Ghosts

Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike

Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike

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