well as the site of occasional spectacular and deadly head-on collisions. In 1955, prior to the creation of the U.S. Interstate Highway System, the Virginia General Assembly created the Richmond–Petersburg Turnpike Authority as an independent state agency to administer (design, finance, acquire right-of-way, construct, operate, collect tolls, and maintain) the new Turnpike of the same name. The new toll road was planned with only 15 exits, and most of these were well away from the highly developed commercial areas along parallel US 1 and US 301. Funded with proceeds from toll revenue bonds sold by the Authority, the -long road cost $76.7 million to build, including new bridges over the James River in Richmond and the Appomattox River between Colonial Heights and Petersburg. It featured six lanes from the northern entrance to just south of the new James River Bridge in Richmond, and four lanes from that point south. At Petersburg, the new Turnpike split into two branches, one leading to US 301 south towards Emporia and Weldon, North Carolina, and the other to US 1 south, which led to South Hill and Raleigh, North Carolina. The new expressway opened on July 1, 1958, and in August, the State Highway Commission designated it as part of Interstate 95. A piece near Petersburg was designated Interstate 85, and the turnpike became a grandfathered part of the Interstate Highway System even though no federal aid was used to build it. The new roadway achieved the intended diversion of long distance traffic. As earlier feared, hotels, motels, tourist homes and cabins, and restaurants along the bypassed highways suffered tremendous loss of business, and many failed. However, due to the relatively high rate of tolls on the Turnpike, the blow was softened by a continually increasing traffic flow and patronage of motorists wanting to avoid the tolls, who continued to use the old roads. This practice of avoiding roads and bridges with tolls is known as "shunpiking". Jackson Ward The construction of the Richmond–Petersburg Turnpike in the 1950s led to the destruction of many blocks of homes and businesses in Jackson Ward, Richmond's oldest historically African-American community. The highway bisected the neighborhood and has had irreparable effects on its fabric. As was common in mid-century planning practices, lower class or black neighborhoods were often targeted and destroyed, such as the Hayti community of Durham North Carolina. This highway, along with the construction of Richmond's