Turnpike

A gate set across a road, to stop travelers and carriages until toll is paid for the privilege of passage thereon.

— Turnpike roads. These are roads on which parties have by law a right to erect gates and bars, for the purpose of taking toll, and of refusing the permission to pass along them to all persons who refuse to pay. Northam Bridge Co. v. London Ry. Co., 6 Mees. & W. 428. A turnpike road is a public highway, established by public authority for public use, and is to be regarded as a public easement, and not as private property. The only difference between this and a common highway is that, instead of being made at the public expense in the first instance, it is authorized and Inid out by public authority, and made at the expense of individuals in the first instance; and the cost of construction and maintenance is reimbursed by a toll, levied by public authority for the purpose. Com. v. Wilkinson, 16 Pick. (Mass.) 175, 26 Am. Dec. 654.