The New Jersey Turnpike is one of the most heavily traveled highways in the United States. The southern terminus is in Salem County, one mile east of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and the northern terminus is located at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, Bergen County. Along the way, the Turnpike has advanced innovation, diversity, and liberty throughout the state for more than fifty years and has itself become a cultural symbol. Consider, for example, Paul Simon’s classic sixties song “America,” about Americans’ search for meaningful values during the Vietnam War era. Simon writes about a cross-country road trip that ends in New Jersey, “Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike/They’ve all come to look for America.” The characters in the song dream of finding an ideal America, perhaps in New Jersey, but they do not succeed.
