In 1939 Don Steele Sr. needed a way to support his widowed mother and siblings, so he took a backbreaking job digging tunnels that would one day allow motorists to sail through two Pennsylvania mountains.
The Kittatinny and Blue mountains west of Harrisburg were obstacles conquered on a highway project regarded as an engineering marvel — the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Today, Steele’s namesake, his grandson Don Steele III, spends his days focused on what could be considered a modern-day marvel involving that same roadway, which celebrates its 84th anniversary of Tuesday…