Pennsylvania Roads - PA 435/Drinker Tpk.

PA 435 and Drinker Turnpike


Drinker St. EB at I-81 Exit 186. Before I-84 was built along the mountainside east of Scranton, this was US 611. US 611 started to the west at its parent (now just Main Ave. thanks to a bypass), came along Green Ridge St. to Blakely St., and turned onto Drinker St. right before it became Drinker Tpk. That's why PA 347 now begins at a seemingly random Dunmore intersection. I-84 doesn't exactly overlay the old Drinker Tpk. alignment, but there was no provision for an underpass so the function of the old road was subsumed by the new one. PA 435 overlays old US 611 from the point where it rejoins the old alignment just east of 84, but all the cool stuff happens west of that point.


There's not much to see at the western end of Drinker Tpk. - even though the abandoned road is a mile long, it's all on private property now behind a fence. So here's the eastern stub, heading west from PA 435 until it ends. Notice the old US 611 cable guiderail on the right, run through wooden posts.


A blowup of the right side of the previous photo. Those are bricks, which I'm guessing are the original pavement of Drinker Tpk. either before or just after it became US 611.


Back up Drinker Tpk., with old guiderail on either side.


PA 435 NB.


I found this old alignment near Moscow and had to double back when I saw it was paved in brick. It's on the SB side and, as you see, fully drivable though fairly overgrown. I recommend it as a longcut.

Onto I-81
Former US 611 on Jeff Kitsko's PAHighways.com
Back to Pennsylvania Roads
Back to Roads