Anyone out there familiar with the Garden State Parkway? I am not talking about "todays Parkway", I am interested in the GSP of the 1980's and before when it was more rustic with stone bridges and wooden guardrails and Green bridge guardrails. I used to travel it with family when I was young and lived up there. Any photos from archives of that timeframe would be awesome. It may be more efficient now but bland as steel and concrete. Any directions to pictures would be appreciative.
I wish I had pics.... but I love the parkway and I used to travel it ALL the time when I used to live up in Woodbridge, NJ
Try here: http://www.gsphistory.com/home.htm
The green bridge guardrails survived until 2001 or so when they were finally upgraded to jersey walls. The stone faced overpasses are still on the highway and if you hunt around, there is some original wood guardrail left here and there.
Hello NJ Roadfan. Been a longtime since I had gotten back on. Back in 12/2009 I went to the NJTP Authority in Woodbridge and talked with a lady named Denise who let me go through the archives ( pictures) of the Parkway the way it was in the 1960s and 1950s and she let me send copies to my email to print later ( which I did). There was no color ones but even in black and white it still reflected that timeframe with my Parents with all the old cars, buses, signs of the times, and yes the wooden guardrails, green ((well actually black and white ha-ha) and stone bridges.
conboys, could you please post some of these pics?
I would love to see what the current spaghetti bowl exits looked like years ago before all the mess was created. I wish someone had a photo of the original left side exit for US 9 north on the GSP North and the original exit for NJ 440 from SB GSP. NJ 184 was NJ 440 back in the 70's and there was a diamond interchange there with direct ramps. Also, US 9 was the way to the Turnpike for NB GSP travelers back then as well.