When the Middlesex Turnpike was a real turnpike

A turnpike is a toll road by definition. The word “pike” is an old synonym for “gate.” When you pay the toll, the gatekeeper turns the pike and lets you proceed. Here’s a turnpike in Downington, PA around 1900:

True to the concept, the Massachusetts Turnpike had human gatekeepers until 2016:

Our humble Middlesex Turnpike was chartered in June of 1805. Construction took a LONG time due to bickering about the route. Finally, in 1811, it connected Cambridge to Tyngsborough, and then crossed the NH border to join the Amherst Turnpike.

Investors met in Cambridge:

For a while, the Middlesex Pike attracted local farmers moving products to their markets — even multi-horse “teams” from Vermont and New Hampshire heading to and from Boston. Users had to pay every 10 miles.

There was a “pike” at the Burlington/Lexington line, near the house of Isaac Reed . . .

. . . and another at Turnpike Station in Billerica, near the house of Abel Bowman.

Here’s the Turnpike crossing Nutting Lake, Billerica in the early 1900s, as automobiles started to replace horses:

The same crossing today:

And here’s where the Turnpike crossed the Concord River near today’s Elsie Ave neighborhood in Billerica:

Here’s a closer look at that crossing, and the overall Turnpike route from Burlington to Nashua NH. Follow the cursor on the screen:

Zooming out, here are the old turnpikes of Massachusetts.

The Middlesex Turnpike didn’t last long as a toll road. The Middlesex Canal and early horse-drawn railroads took business away, so the Turnpike’s charter was repealed in 1841, only three decades after its completion. Investors lost big.

The word Turnpike lives on with the Massachusetts Turnpike, born in 1957 to connect Boston to New York via other highways. It ended in Weston until 1965, when it was extended into Boston. Now it spans 138 miles and actually makes a profit (electronically) along the way! The state collects tolls invisibly on other roads too:

• Tobin Bridge (Boston to Chelsea)
• Sumner and Callahan tunnels (East Boston to North End)

Alas, there are no more gates or gatekeepers.

•  The Turnpikes of New England by Frederick James Wood
• History of Billerica, Massachusetts : with a Genealogical register / by the Rev. Henry A. Hazen
• Special thanks to Claire Hotchkiss Gordy, local history librarian at the Billerica Public Library.