This then-and-now sequence of pictures shows a set of phone booths on the New Jersey Turnpike. These two pictures show how the booths look today, and how they looked about 11 years ago.

I’ll start with the better of the 2 pictures, taken in February, 2010, by Dan Z. Johnson.

This ghostly, science-fiction-like scene shows 6 Verizon phone booths as they look today at the Vince Lombardi Service Station of the New Jersey Turnpike. Soot-encrusted snow in front and barren winter trees in the back create a strangely beautiful scene that leaves much to the imagination.

The earlier picture is by me, and dates all the way back to the 20th century.

The booths have been spruced up a bit since I saw them, with helpful icons on the frames indicating that these metal structures contain telephonic devices. The phone books today are sprawled out a bit, and less plentiful, but still there when you need them.

If you ever need to find a phone booth in the New York metro area (for creative or nostalgic reasons) then the New Jersey Turnpike is a good place to look. I took some pictures of Turnpike phone booths in October, 2005, as I wound down a long road trip with stops at the service areas along that thoroughfare. All the service stops, it seemed, had a row of metal phone booths, some with doors that closed, and most of them stinking like a toilet. The Woodrow Wilson Service Area Phone Booths looked good, but none of the phones worked, and they smelled so bad they made my eyes water.

On that same trip I spotted this haunting phone booth at Exit 9 of the New Jersey Turnpike.

A few years earlier I spotted five phone booths at this service area the name of which I forgot. One booth had its door intact and I think all the phones worked. I also spotted 4 phone booths at another service area the name of which I don’t recall.

And as any Payphone Project fan should know, you can still find the last outdoor, free-standing phone booths of Manhattan at four locations on West End Avenue.

I should rent a car and make a little road trip of re-visiting these New Jersey Turnpike locations, to see which of the phone booths survive.

Thanks to Dan Johnson for the cool picture of the Vince Lombardi Service Area phone booths!