No way! Way!

I ended my previous blog entry regarding turnpikes with a thought-provoking question from George Carlin:  Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?  For those of you who have lost sleep pondering this imponderable, rest assured you will receive a good night’s sleep after reading this blog  entry!  Part of my inspiration to pursue the history of “parkway” comes from a recent conversation with a friend whose job required that he research the history of parkways in New York State, and part comes from the amount of driving—on turnpikes, parkways, thruways, highways, by-ways, freeways, and driveways--we have done recently and will do soon.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD) defines a driveway as “a private road that connects a house, garage, or other building with the street” and parkway as "a broad landscaped highway; often divided by a planted median strip.”  This definition gives very little information about a parkway, except that it should be pleasant to drive on if you like landscaping.  The idea of a scenic drive is appropriate to a parkway, and Google aided me in further refining the qualities of a “parkway.”

Parkways are found all around the United States.  Unlike turnpikes, they are “freeways,” that is, you do not have to pay a toll to drive on them (or to drive your cattle on them).  While parkways around the country were built for various reasons, they all share the quality of providing a scenic drive.  For an overview of parkways around the United States, visit History of Scenic Roads Program  compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.

At the turn of the 20^th Century, the advent of the automobile changed the way Americans approached leisure time.  For example, The Long Island Parkway System initially was built to provide scenic access to parks.  This system, which had its beginnings in the Bronx River Parkway, “was developed in part as a result of the burgeoning public parks and conservation movement, and the increasing availability and technological advances of the automobile,” according to the web site.

To a different purpose, the Blue Ridge Parkway was built as part of the New Deal’s effort to provide jobs in the Depression, in the process linking the Shenandoah National Park with the Great Smokey National Park.  Likewise, the Arroyo Seco Parkway, billed as oldest FREEWAY in the United States, provided jobs during the Depression while connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, hardly a scenic purpose, some may argue.

As a Southerner, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Natchez Trace Parkway, described as “the most significant highway of the Old Southwest.”  It combines history with scenery.  Traveling through the homelands of three Native American nations--Natchez, Chicasaw, and Choctaw--it spans three states.

I will close with the parkway bearing my favorite name, The Queen of All Parkways, aka the Merritt Parkway. According to the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, the primary purpose of this parkway was to relieve traffic congestion while providing a scenic drive.

Parkways in their inception served a number of purposes, combining scenic travel with economic gain and history.  In today’s world, many parkways have fallen into disrepair or have been “overridden,” (as it were) by newer major roads.  Perhaps in a way, newer interstate highways have done for parkways what the advent of air conditioning did for porches.

Those of us of “a certain age” remember how crazy we thought the Jetsons were with their phones that allowed the users to see each other talk.  Today, Skype and web conferences are routine.  Who knows how soon it will be before the helicopter car becomes as common as Skyping.

LAGNIAPPE:  Different regions of the United States have local terms for many things.  In my last blog entry, I discussed “kill” as a term for “creek” in the New York State area.  I am including a usage note at the entry for “run” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:

Our Living Language Traditional terms for "a small, fast-flowing stream" vary throughout the eastern United States especially and are enshrined in many place names. Speakers in the eastern part of the Lower North (including Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and southern Pennsylvania) use the word run. Speakers in the Hudson Valley and Catskills, the Dutch settlement areas of New York State, may call such a stream a kill. Brook has come to be used throughout the Northeast. Southerners refer to a branch, and throughout the rural northern United States the term is often crick, a variant of creek.

A driving question

Recently, Richard and I have done some traveling.  We had the pleasure of watching the waning color of New York wave us into the vivid colors of New Jersey and parts south, foreshadowing, perhaps the holiday lights soon to come.  As I watched the color pageant parade past, I read the roadside signs and thought about--words!  With some words, the meaning is obvious, as in “thruway” or “highway.”  The New York State Thruway spans through the state to make travel more direct, as does a highway or expressway.

Turnpikes serve the same purpose, but what does the word “turnpike” mean?  Does it involve fish or pointed iron tools or weapons?  On the way south, we drove past the Mass Pike and drove on the New Jersey Turnpike.  On the way home, we drove past the Oregon Pike and on the Allentown Pike in Pennsylvania.  I figured that perhaps “turnpike” came from a different language, since various nationalities influenced the settling of the northeast, generally.  For example, in these parts “kill,” as in “Catskill,” comes from the Dutch influence and means “creek.”  Therefore, the word “catskill” does not reflect some vicious plot to eliminate cats from the area but simply means “cat creek.”

As it turns out, my hypothesis regarding a possible foreign origin of “turnpike” was wrong.  “Turnpike” comes from Middle English.  However, my associations of “pike” with a weapon or tool relate to the meaning of “turnpike” as a roadway.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “turnpike” as “a spiked barrier fixed across a road or passage, as a defence against sudden attack, esp. of men on horseback,” with examples going back to the 15^th century.  In today’s world, similar turnpikes prevent theft of rental cars.  Technically, the turnpike that we drive on is a “turnpike road,” which the OED defines as “a road on which turnpikes are or were erected for the collection of tolls; hence, a main road or highway, formerly maintained by a toll levied on cattle and wheeled vehicles.”  (Can you imagine an E-Z Pass for cattle on cattle drives?)  The American Heritage Dictionary, 5^th edition supplies a more modern definition for “turnpike”:  “a toll road, especially an expressway with tollgates.”

Back in the day, the medieval Department of Transportation would erect iron bars, sometimes curved, across roadways for purposes of defense or to collect a road use fee.  (Perhaps strewing pike fish across the road would have been almost as effective although somewhat less practical.)  In today’s world, toll booths as opposed to turnpikes for the collection of fees are more practical, but they don’t make paying the fees any more palatable!  (Smells like fish!)

LAGNIAPPE 1:  The word “high” originally meant “main,” as in “main” road or way.

LAGNIAPPE 2:  Richard reminded me of George Carlin’s philosophical question, why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?  (Sounds “fishy” to me!)