State Route 1002 (Lehigh County, Pennsylvania)

When the state began taking over state highways through the Sproul Road Bill, signed May 31, 1911,[5] this system did not include the direct Allentown-Harrisburg route that Interstate 78 and the parallel Tilghman Street now form part of. The main route to Harrisburg, which would soon become the William Penn Highway, left Allentown further south, on Hamilton Boulevard, now Pennsylvania Route 222, and U.S. Route 222); the portion near Allentown was Legislative Route 157 (LR 157). Another route west from Allentown (LR 163, later U.S. Route 309) ran northwest from Allentown via Walbert Avenue to Schnecksville. Travelers could continue via New Tripoli to Lenhartsville, and then along a route approximating the present I-78 to Harrisburg. From Allentown east to downtown Bethlehem, LR 159 used Hanover Avenue and Broad Street. No state highways existed within the city limits of Allentown.[6][7]

The William Penn Highway was organized as an alternative to the Lincoln Highway being parallel to the Pennsylvania Railroad west of Harrisburg. The route's New York Extension, adopted in 1916, passed through Allentown. The state assigned the Pennsylvania Route 3 designation to this road in 1924, and in 1926 it became part of U.S. Route 22.[8] The road west from Allentown, now College Heights Boulevard, Broadway, Tilghman Street, and Main Street, was designated LR 443 in 1925,[9] and soon the entire shortcut between Allentown and Harrisburg was designated Pennsylvania Route 43.[10] The New York Times was recommending use of this cutoff by early 1931[10] and the American Association of State Highway Officials officially moved US 22 to PA 43 on June 8, 1931. The Pennsylvania Department of Highways moved the William Penn Highway name to match.[8] Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard (then Union Street) were once local streets in Allentown and Bethlehem, with no bridge over the Lehigh River connecting them;[11][12] Allentown built that bridge in 1929.[13]

Built in 1929, the viaduct is the oldest bridge on SR 1002.

Prior to 1931, there were no state highways in Allentown or a number of other major cities in the state. However, the state did define paths through these cities for the public; in Allentown, US 22 used Hamilton Street, and PA 43 entered on Liberty Street and turned south on 17th Street to reach Hamilton Street.[14] The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed, on June 22, 1931, a law defining state highways through these cities and changing routes in other cities. LR 443 was defined to use College Heights Boulevard and Tilghman Street to 15th Street, where LR 157 continued along Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard to the Allentown-Bethlehem line. LR 159 was redefined to begin at the same point, continuing on Union Boulevard to Main Street in downtown Bethlehem and beyond to Easton.[15][16] The newest part of Tilghman Street includes the bridge over Little Lehigh Creek in Trexler Park west of Cedar Crest Boulevard, which dates to 1936,[13] and bypasses the older route via Broadway and College Heights Boulevard. Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard became a major long-distance traffic route, and as of 1999 had eight diners as a reminder of this past importance.[17]

1939 map of Tilghman Street (old US 22)

In addition to US 22, Tilghman Street also carried U.S. Route 309 and PA Route 29 between 19th Street and Seventh Street. They were moved from Hamilton Street with US 22 in 1931,[14][15][16][18] and to a freeway bypass of Allentown in the late 1950s.[13][19] The Lehigh Valley Thruway, a freeway taking US 22 around Allentown and Bethlehem to the north, was opened on September 21, 1954.[20] With the opening of these two highways, and the western extension of the Thruway in the late 1950s,[13] no signed Traffic Routes remained on Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard, yet the road was still state maintained. It still carried LR 443, LR 157, and LR 159 through the cities, since the Thruway was assigned a new number — LR 772 — but west of the crossing at Kuhnsville, LR 443 was moved to the freeway, and the old route became LR Old 443,[21][22] later LR 443 Parallel.[23]

The road west of Church Street in Fogelsville, which was also a state highway (LR 39084), was removed from the state highway system in the late 1970s.[24] A gap in LR 159 through downtown Bethlehem was created in 1971, at the same time as Washington Avenue and Stefko Boulevard were added to the system as a bypass, with Union Boulevard east of Pennsylvania Route 378 becoming a city street.[25] Thus in 1987, when the new Location Referencing System was adopted, only the portion of Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard between Church Street and PA 378 was assigned a new number: State Route 1002.[26]

In late October 2012, the Tilghman Street Bridge over the Lehigh River was repaved in order to accommodate construction vehicles for the long-awaited beginning of the American Parkway Bridge project.[27]

The entire route is in Lehigh County.

Location	mi[1]	km	Destinations	Notes
Fogelsville	0.000	0.000	SR 3014 (Church Street)[3]
	0.332	0.534	PA 100 – Tamaqua, Trexlertown	Main Street becomes Tilghman Street east of PA 100
Kuhnsville	2.771	4.459	US 22 (Lehigh Valley Thruway) – Harrisburg, Allentown	Partial interchange with access in only the same direction
South Whitehall Township	3.249	5.229	I-476 Toll / Penna Turnpike NE Extension – Scranton, Philadelphia	Entrance ramp to I-476 / Penna Turnpike NE Extension exit 56 (Lehigh Valley); E-ZPass or toll-by-plate; no access to SR 1002 from I-476
	4.261	6.857	PA 309 – Tamaqua, Quakertown	Cloverleaf interchange
	5.735	9.230	SR 1019 (Cedar Crest Boulevard) to US 22 – Balliettsville, Dorneyville	Formerly PA 229[16]
Allentown	7.237	11.647	SR 1017 north (19th Street)	Formerly US 309 and PA 29[16]
	7.708	12.405	SR 2003 south (15th Street) – Reading	Formerly part of US 222[16]
	8.062	12.975	12th Street	Formerly US 309 Bypass[14]
	8.625	13.881	PA 145 south (7th Street) – Quakertown, Philadelphia
	8.728	14.046	PA 145 north (6th Street)
	9.072	14.600	Tilghman Street Viaduct over the Lehigh River	Tilghman Street becomes Union Boulevard at the east end of the bridge
	9.774	15.730	SR 1003 north (Airport Road) to US 22	Formerly part of PA 987;[22] access to LVI Airport
Bethlehem	13.684	22.022	SR 1001 south (3rd Avenue) to PA 378 south	Formerly part of PA 191;[34] provides access to and from PA 378 south
	13.794	22.199	PA 378 north	Interchange with single ramp to PA 378 north; traffic from PA 378 north exits at Main Street (former routing of PA 191 north[34]) in downtown Bethlehem
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Electronic toll collection       Incomplete access

•  U.S. Roads portal
•  Pennsylvania portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to State Route 1002 (Lehigh County, Pennsylvania).

• "Maps of Allentown". Official website of Allentown. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
• "1987 Local Referencing System" (PDF). Pennsylvania. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-05-12.