Nine years ago, almost to the day, this reporter attempted — unsuccessfully, I admit — to solve a mystery that has long plagued Saugertesians: Why are there two separate tollbooth areas at the New York State Thruway’s Exit 20? The answer, at long last, may finally be at hand.
Gus Pedersen is a skilled cabinetmaker and volunteer with groups like the Saugerties Artists Studio Tour, the Saugerties Historical Society, and Lighthouse TV-23. He has also been on the steering committee of Friends of Historic Saugerties since its inception, and it is in this role he will present his fascinating findings in a presentation at the Saugerties Public Library on Saturday, October 11 at 11 a.m. in the community room at the Saugerties Public Library.
I was given a preview of Pedersen’s presentation, “The Thruway,” in a telephone interview last week. And though I was sworn to secrecy to allow him to share his research with the public in person, I can confirm that he’s not only done his homework, but he’s made a very compelling case, which begins before the Thruway officially opened in June 1954
The New York State Thruway is nearly 570 miles long, 496 miles of which are tolled. Curiously, Saugerties is the only exit with two separate tollbooths…Well, they’re not tollbooths anymore. Over the past few years, each exit on the Thruway completed their conversion from manned tollbooths to electronic toll gantries and a completely cashless tolling system. Still, in Saugerties there are two sets of those. But why?
At Exit 19 in Kingston, northbound traffic exiting and entering the Thruway joins up via an overpass with southbound traffic at a fairly well-organized but lone row of booths. The same is true at New Paltz (Exit 18.) So what happened in Saugerties? In 2016, I set out to answer that very question, interviewing local historians and officials, a Thruway official who polled since-retired experts, and many others. I heard plenty of rumors, but nothing concrete.
One local legend was related to the opening of Ulster County Community College, better known today as SUNY Ulster. After years of planning, the college eventually opened in Stone Ridge in 1961 after an extensive search for a property large enough to house the campus and possible future expansion. Winston Farm, located in Saugerties just off the southbound exit of the Thruway, was once considered a possibility.
An even more entertaining rumor regarded state Senator Arthur Wicks, a Kingstonian who owned a steam laundry, who it was said managed to squeeze in three Thruway exits in his constituency while he was majority leader, a move that so irritated his fellow politicians on the other side of the Hudson that it eventually led to the decision to run the commuter rail line exclusively on the east side of the river.
June 24, 1954 was the official opening day of the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway. The expansion, which included the introduction of a usage toll — along with an $8 annual “bargain permit” that covered unlimited mileage — would connect a series of shorter stretches of road together at the Thruway, incorporating a 9.4-mile segment of originally toll-free road that opened on December 16, 1953 and ran between Saugerties and Kingston. A Saugerties-to-Catskill leg was completed three years earlier
Over the years, reducing the two tollbooth areas at Exit 20 to one have been discussed, rejected due to the potential costs which were quoted in the tens of millions of dollars. In the lead-up to Woodstock ’94, planning consultants suggested building an entirely new interchange to deal with the anticipated traffic issues. That possibility was mooted in favor of a temporary exit related to the festival that was subsequently shut down.
In conducting his research, Pedersen not only metaphorically traveled the New York State Thruway, but also local roads, and even a bridge abutment over train tracks between Mount Marion and Old Kings Highway that seemed incongruous with the modern age. He also looked for answers in the former area of Byrnes Corners, a part of Saugerties that in a bygone era held small homes, boarding houses, and hotels. Pedersen was particularly intrigued by the latter, largely as its almost entirely fallen out of local lore.
“I ask people, ‘What’s Burns Corners?’” Pedersen said. “Nobody seems to know anything about what Burns Corners is, and it tickles my imagination.”
He also asked, and will presumably answer, why is Malden Turnpike bigger than People’s Road, and is that related to the New York State Thruway?
Pedersen’s findings aren’t a secret exactly, but he asked that I reveal little about what he found so he can share the history during his presentation. As with many large projects, particularly those which seek to combine municipal and state infrastructure, it is a story with many twists and turns. And based on the detail he shared with me, it is also fascinating.
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