Turnpike

A gate set across a road, to stop travelers and carriages until toll' is paid for passage thereon. In the United States, turnpike roads are often called "turnpikes," just as mail coach, hackneycoach, stage coach, are shortened to mail, hack, and stage. Enc. Am.

See Turnpike-Road.

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.

A road having toll-gates or bars, called "turns" or "pikes," for the barring of passage until toll is paid; a toll-road.

Originally, a road having toll-gates or bars, called "thirls" or "pikes," with which to obstruct passage until toll was paid. A "turnpike road" means a road having on it toll-gates or bars, originally called "turns." Such roads were first constructed about the middle of the last century. Individuals, with a view to the repair of particular roads, subscribed money and erected gates, taking tolls from those who passed through them. The distinctive mark still is the right of turning back any one who refuses to pay toll. A turnpike company is one which has the power to collect tolls from persons passing over the road, and to enforce the collection by erecting turnpikes or gates, or both, to obstruct the passage till tolls are paid. This definition is general, embracing various species of roads, whether the materials of which they are formed be stones, gravel, or plank, or the structure be flat or rounded. A turnpike road is a public highway, differing from a common highway only in being authorized by public authority and made at the expense of individuals, which expense is reimbursed by a toll. See Toll, 2; Way.