Editing New Jersey Turnpike (section)

=== Precursors and planning ===
{{Infobox road small
|state=NJ
|type=NJ 1926
|county=
|route=100
|location= [[New Brunswick, New Jersey|New Brunswick]]–[[Fort Lee, New Jersey|Fort Lee]]
|length_mi=
|length_round=
|length_ref=
|formed=1938
|deleted=1953
}}
{{Infobox road small
|state=NJ
|type=NJ 1926
|county=
|route=300
|location= [[Deepwater, New Jersey|Deepwater]]–[[New Brunswick, New Jersey|New Brunswick]]
|length_mi=
|length_round=
|length_ref=
|formed=1938
|deleted=1953
}}
Route&nbsp;100 and Route&nbsp;300 were two state highways proposed in the 1930s by the [[New Jersey State Highway Department]] as precursors to the New Jersey Turnpike.

The road that is now the New Jersey Turnpike was first planned by the State Highway Department as two freeways in 1938. Route&nbsp;100 was the route from New Brunswick to the George Washington Bridge, plus a spur to the [[Holland Tunnel]], now the Newark Bay Extension of the Turnpike. Route&nbsp;300 was the southern part of the turnpike from the Delaware Memorial Bridge to New Brunswick. However, the State Highway Department did not have the funds to complete the two freeways, and very little of the road was built under its auspices.<ref name=njdot100>{{cite web |url = http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/images/str00001/ModelsRt100.jpg |title = Model of Route&nbsp;100 |publisher = New Jersey Department of Transportation |access-date = September 23, 2009 }}{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name=njdot1002>{{cite web |url = http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/images/str00001/RoutesRt100undated.jpg |title = Route&nbsp;100 under construction |publisher = New Jersey Department of Transportation |access-date = September 22, 2009 }}{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Instead, in 1948, the NJTA was created to build the road, and the two freeways were built as a single toll road.

[[New Jersey Route S100|Route&nbsp;S100]] was a proposed spur of Route&nbsp;100 in Elizabeth. It was never built, although [[New Jersey Route 81|Route&nbsp;81]] follows a similar alignment.

[[File:America's Highways 1776–1976 - page 167.jpg|thumb|right|Construction of the New Jersey Turnpike]]
According to a letter to the editor written by Kathleen Troast Pitney, the daughter of [[Paul L. Troast]], the first chairman of the NJTA:
{{blockquote|Governor Driscoll appointed three men to the turnpike authority in the late 1940s—Maxwell Lester, George Smith and Paul Troast, my father, as chairman. They had no enabling legislation and no funding. They were able to open more than two-thirds of the road in 11 months, completing the whole (project) in less than two years ... When the commissioners broached the subject of landscaping the road ... the governor told them he wanted a road to take the interstate traffic ... off New Jersey's existing roads. Since 85 percent of the traffic at that time was estimated to be from out of state, why spend additional funds on landscaping?<ref>{{cite news |url = http://www.nj.com/specialprojects/index.ssf?/specialprojects/turnpike/tpletters.html |title = Love/hate letters |format = Letter to the Editor |first = Kathleen |last = Troast Pitney |work = [[The Star-Ledger]] |location = Newark, New Jersey |date = November 2, 2001 |access-date = July 7, 2011 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221308/http://www.nj.com/specialprojects/index.ssf?%2Fspecialprojects%2Fturnpike%2Ftpletters.html |archive-date = March 3, 2016 }}</ref>}}

A brochure ''Interesting Facts about the New Jersey Turnpike'', dating from soon after the road's opening, says that when the turnpike's bonds are paid off, "the law provides that the turnpike be turned over to the state for inclusion in the public highway system". Due to new construction, and the expectation that the turnpike pays for policing and maintenance, this has never come to pass.