A thruway is a wide, high-speed highway designed for fast travel over long distances. Thruways typically have multiple lanes in each direction, limited entrances and exits, and no traffic lights or stop signs to slow you down. When your family drives several hours to visit relatives in another state, you're probably spending most of that trip on a thruway.

The New York State Thruway, which stretches over 500 miles from New York City to the Pennsylvania border, is one of America's most famous examples.

In the United States, thruways are similar to freeways, expressways, or interstate highways. They're part of the massive highway system built across America in the 1950s and 1960s that transformed how people travel and where they live. Before thruways existed, a trip that now takes three hours might have taken all day, winding through dozens of small towns on narrow two-lane roads.