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New York State Route 22
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New York State Route 22 (NY 22) is a New York state highway running north–south parallel to the state's eastern edge from the outskirts of New York City to a short distance south of the Canadian border. At over , it is the state's longest north–south route and the third longest overall, after NY 5 and NY 17. Many of the state's major east–west roads intersect with Route 22 just before crossing the state line into the neighboring New England states.
Almost all of Route 22 is a two-lane rural road that only passes through small villages and hamlets.
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Encyclopedia
New York State Route 22 (NY 22) is a New York state highway running north–south parallel to the state's eastern edge from the outskirts of New York City to a short distance south of the Canadian border. At over , it is the state's longest north–south route and the third longest overall, after NY 5 and NY 17. Many of the state's major east–west roads intersect with Route 22 just before crossing the state line into the neighboring New England states.
Almost all of Route 22 is a two-lane rural road that only passes through small villages and hamlets. The exceptions are its southern end in the heavily populated Bronx and lower Westchester County, and a section of that runs through the city of Plattsburgh near the northern end. The rural landscape that the road passes through varies from horse country and views of the picturesque reservoirs of the New York City watershed in the northern suburbs of the City, to dairy farms further upstate in the hilly Taconics and Berkshires, to the undeveloped, heavily forested Adirondack Park along the shores of Lake Champlain. An section from Fort Ann to Keeseville is part of the All-American Road known as the Lakes to Locks Passage.
The southernmost section of the road was known as the White Plains Post Road in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a major highway connecting New York City to White Plains, the Westchester county seat. Route 22 in its modern form was established in 1930 as one of the principal routes from New York City to Canada.
Route description
Route 22 starts as an urban arterial road, passing through the most populous communities along its route within its first . After running northerly from its origin in the Bronx it veers slightly to the northeast at a traffic circle near Kensico Dam before heading northward for good as a mostly two-lane rural route all the way to the Canadian border.
Bronx to Kensico Dam
Route 22 starts as Provost Avenue at an intersection with US 1 in the Bronx, intersecting with East 233rd Street about later. It soon crosses the Westchester county line into Mount Vernon and becomes South Third Avenue, beginning a section in that county. Shortly after the county line, Route 22 makes a sharp turn to the right at the South Columbus Avenue intersection. It parallels the nearby Hutchinson River Parkway as it heads into the New York City suburbs of Bronxville and Tuckahoe. At Wilson Woods Lake, it crosses a pair of railroad tracks and becomes North Columbus Avenue, then has its first interchange with a limited-access road at the Cross County Parkway. NY 22 is mostly locally maintained within the city of Mount Vernon.
Two country clubs on either side herald NY 22's entry into the wealthy suburb of Scarsdale. It makes a turn to the northeast, passing the Vernon Hills Shopping Center to the right. After leaving Scarsdale, NY 22 continues north into the hamlet of Hartsdale.
The route parallels the Bronx River Parkway (BRP) as it enters Westchester's county seat, White Plains. Within the city of White Plains, NY 22 is maintained by Westchester County, with unsigned designations of County Road 53 (Scarsdale line to NY 125), County Road 108 (NY 125 to Westchester Avenue), and County Road 87 (Broadway to North Castle line). NY 22 also intersects NY 125 and NY 119 in downtown White Plains, then bends to the northwest along North Broadway, eventually intersecting the Cross-Westchester Expressway (I-287). White Plains Rural Cemetery is visible to the west as NY 22 continues northward out of the city.
In North White Plains, the area that the road passes through becomes a little less developed as it goes over a gentle rise to the traffic circle where the BRP ends and the Taconic State Parkway begins, just south of Kensico Dam.
Kensico Reservoir to Brewster
While the Taconic State Parkway continues along the northwest heading Route 22 had been following, Route 22 itself veers to the northeast along the reservoir's south shore towards a short concurrency with NY 120, just north of IBM's Armonk headquarters and the "Duke's Trees angle", the westernmost point in Connecticut. For the first time, NY 22 runs parallel to New York's eastern border, intersecting I-684 for the first of several times just north of the short portion of that highway in Connecticut. A short distance later, NY 433, one of the state's shortest highways, heads south from NY 22 into Greenwich.
After that junction, NY 22 bends back to the north, paralleling I-684 as a narrow, shaded meandering two-lane rural route through the Westchester countryside of large wooded lots and houses well-screened from the road. In downtown Bedford, the first settlement since White Plains, the highway overlaps with NY 172 for a few blocks, then intersects NY 121 at its southern terminus. Route 22 itself follows a due-north heading from the hamlet, passing the Caramoor Center, the John Jay Homestead State Historic Site (the first National Historic Landmark along the highway), and Harvey School, before it briefly widens at a major intersection with NY 35 near Katonah. Two miles north of that junction, NY 22 becomes parallel to I-684 into the Town of Somers and the hamlet of Goldens Bridge. On the other side of the interstate, accessible via NY 138, is the Goldens Bridge train station on Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line, which begins a long parallel alignment with NY 22 at this point.
The railroad's Purdy's station is a short distance west of the next junction, NY 116, after which NY 22 crosses under I-684, remaining between it and the railroad tracks. Turning left onto Hardscrabble Road, it follows the tracks away from the interstate to the site of the next station, North Salem's hamlet of Croton Falls. Just north of the hamlet, Route 22 crosses under the tracks, and is joined by US 202. Immediately afterward, the road crosses back under the railroad again and enters Putnam County, following the Croton River north past the spillway of East Branch Reservoir.
After paralleling the reservoir for almost two miles (3 km), a third route, US 6, joins the concurrency just east of the village of Brewster. The three routes cross under a high, long bridge carrying I-84, then veer east to an interchange with the north end of I-684. US 6 and 202 continue east for Danbury while NY 22 uses the northbound on-ramp of the I-684 roadway. The short expressway connector that carries northbound I-684 traffic to northbound NY 22 is NY Reference Route 981B.
Harlem Valley, Taconics and Berkshires
Route 22 continues heading northeast along a narrow strip of land between the East Branch and Bog Brook reservoirs. It then resumes its northward heading, following a much straighter course than it had up to this point, on two lanes through wooded areas of the town of Patterson, where two local state highways, NY 312 and 164, come in from the west. The highway gradually expands to three and sometimes four lanes as it passes through built-up areas of strip development. Shortly after intersecting a third state highway, NY 311, and passing another strip plaza, NY 22 crosses into Dutchess County.
After another supermarket strip to the east, a long, gentle divided bend in the road almost a mile long ends with an overpass where NY 55 comes in from the west. It joins NY 22 as the two routes, returning to two lanes, pass through the eastern fringe of the village of Pawling and then by Trinity-Pawling School. Past the village, the railroad tracks edge closer to the highway as NY 22 enters the scenic Harlem Valley, which lends its name to the railroad line. The road curves more gently and takes longer straightaways, with lower density of residential and commercial development. Two miles from Pawling, the Appalachian Trail crosses the road next to Appalachian Trail flag stop on the line.
Routes 22 and 55 continue their long curve into the town of Dover, past the Harlem Valley-Wingdale station next to the road across from the now-closed buildings of Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center. The NY 55 concurrency ends when that road heads towards Connecticut at Wingdale, once the last stop on the Harlem Line. As a result of a service extension in 2002, the diesel engines can be seen along the reopened track beyond here, through Dover Plains and into Amenia, where an overlap with NY 343 begins. The railroad line ends at Wassaic, the most distant Metro-North station from the city in direct miles. Route 343 remains joined with Route 22 into the hamlet of Amenia, where it separates and heads towards state line. At the same junction, US 44 comes in from Millbrook to begin an overlap with Route 22. The valley opens up as the southern Taconics loom ahead.
After intersecting with NY 199 at its eastern end, NY 22 and US 44 veer northeast into the small village of Millerton in the northern protrusion of Dutchess County's Oblong, an area once the subject of a boundary dispute between New York and Connecticut in the late 17th century. US 44 continues eastward towards Connecticut while NY 22 resumes its northward course into the shadow of the ridge ahead, where three states converge near the Brace Mountain, Dutchess County's highest, and Connecticut's highest point on Mount Frissell's southern slope. At another gentle curve, NY 22 slips into Columbia County and the town of Ancram. North of the county line, Massachusetts becomes the state behind Alander Mountain and the other peaks visible to the east. The southernmost route from New York to the Massachusetts state line, NY 344, leaves for Bashbish Falls State Park at the hamlet of Copake Falls.
The next major junction is in Hillsdale where NY 23 crosses NY 22 on its way to Catamount Ski Center, which straddles the New York–Massachusetts state line. At the hamlet of Green River, NY 71, the state's shortest two-digit route, begins at NY 22 heading east into Massachusetts. NY 22 then crosses into Austerlitz, where the surrounding terrain becomes much more wooded and the valleys become narrower. In the center of town, East Hill Road offers a short detour to Steepletop, the farm where Edna St. Vincent Millay lived. A short distance later, NY 22 intersects with NY 203 at its eastern end.
Route 22 then veers sharply to the northeast, resuming a northward direction only a short distance from the state line, a few hundred feet to the east. It then rounds a mountain and heads west, paralleling the New York State Thruway's Berkshire section (I-90) for a mile. NY 980D (an unsigned reference route) leaves to the east, where it becomes Massachusetts Route 102 at the state line. After Thruway exit B3, NY 22 resumes its northerly heading. From here it intersects NY 295, then passes Queechy Lake. NY 22 then straightens out to reach New Lebanon, where it intersects US 20. New York's longest east–west route (US 20) overlaps with its longest north–south route (NY 22) for a mile before the former continues to Pittsfield and the latter returns to the border-paralleling course, which takes it into Rensselaer County.
As NY 22 continues north, it remains, at first, within a mile of Massachusetts, moving to the east to intersect with NY 43 in Stephentown. North of that junction, it begins to run through a deep, isolated, lightly populated valley in the New York section of the Berkshires. Wide curves take the road through Berlin, where Berlin Mountain, the highest peak in the state outside of the Catskills and Adirondacks, caps the eastern skyline. Route 22 trends further west, then back east to where NY 2 crosses via an overpass at Petersburgh on its way to Petersburg Pass, the northernmost crossing of the New York-Massachusetts state line. The next road to head east from NY 22, NY 346 at North Petersburgh, enters Vermont.
Shortly afterward, the highway descends gently from the Berkshires to meet another major state road, NY 7, and overlaps with it for a short distance. Two miles after that concurrency ends, NY 22 follows the upper Hoosic River to Hoosick Falls, the first village it has passed through since Millerton. There are no other state routes here, but after another , at North Hoosick, NY 67 comes in from the east and the two roads overlap as they leave Rensselaer County.
Washington County
Almost immediately after the joined roads cross the county line, NY 67 splits off to the west, crossing the Hoosick back into Rensselaer County, while NY 22 straightens out again to go due north. After , it reaches Cambridge, where NY 313 forks off to the east. In the middle of town, NY 372, a local connector to Greenwich, ends.
North of Cambridge, the highway continues through a rolling landscape of fields and farms, the low transitional country between the Appalachians and the Adirondacks. Beyond NY 29's eastern terminus at Greenwich Junction, Route 22 heads eastward again through of countryside until, just before reaching Granville, it comes within a of the state line, the closest it has come to that boundary since Austerlitz. At the village's south end, NY 22 intersects NY 149 and the two routes overlap for several blocks until NY 149 begins its short journey to Vermont. Just north of Granville, the first of NY 22's two suffixed routes, NY 22A, begins its route running closely parallel to the state line and then into Vermont, where it becomes VT 22A, paralleling the parent route for some distance on the other side of the state line.
Immediately after this junction, NY 22 begins a long curve away from the state line that has it running due west at the end of NY 40 in North Granville. It heads northwest a little further until, after passing between Great Meadows and Washington state prisons, it reaches US 4 and turns right to join it, resuming its northward course. The overlap with US 4, one of the few along Route 22 that pairs it with another north–south route, lasts for seven miles (11 km) along the base of the Adirondack foothills between the low country and Lake George, before ending in Whitehall, where US 4 leaves to assume the east–west course it takes across northern New England.
Adirondack Park and Lake Champlain
As NY 22 bends westward after leaving Whitehall, it rounds the north end of the ridge to the west, offering views into Vermont. Once again the Vermont state line is very near NY 22, but now it is separated from New York by water instead of land. The stream at the bottom of this valley, surrounded by the low lying Drowned Lands flood plain, is the inflow for Lake Champlain. The lake's South Bay, which the road crosses immediately after this turn, is also the Blue Line. Route 22 has now entered Adirondack Park, the Forest Preserve and National Historic Landmark, and the largest state-level protected area in any state. Within the park, NY 22 mainly follows the lakeshore, closer to some of its more populated areas.
It continues along the hillside of Black Mountain, Washington County's highest peak, as it meanders north on the narrowing isthmus between Lakes Champlain and George. Near the northern end, it crosses the Essex County line. Two miles later, it reaches the first settlement along its length within the Adirondack Park, Ticonderoga.
The highway skirts the northeastern edge of the village, the site of key battles in both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, as NY 74 comes in from the ferry to the east. This overlap lasts for almost two miles (3 km) until NY 74 goes straight ahead at the intersection with NY 9N, while NY 22 turns right to join NY 9N, the longest suffixed route in the state, and return to its northbound orientation.
At first, Routes 22 and 9N veer west, away from the lake, but then return to its shoreline to avoid a nearby mountain, just before Crown Point. NY 185, a small connector road, runs from 9N and 22 along the peninsula to become VT 17. They remain close to the widening lake for the next through Port Henry to Westport, where 9N leaves heading west for Elizabethtown. Beyond that junction, Route 22 again turns inland, going through the easy pass around Split Rock Mountain. At Bouquet, it makes an abrupt right turn to go due east back to the lakeshore and ferry landing at Essex.
Route 22 heads to the northwest again, away from the lake, until it heads west and intersects US 9 in the town of Chesterfield, the other major north–south surface route up the state's eastern side. Routes 22 and 9 join together, closely parallel to the Adirondack Northway (I-87), the only other route in the state to directly connect New York City with Canada. The three routes, spread over many miles in the southern part of the state, run through a narrow corridor for two miles (3 km) until Routes 9 and 22 veer east again toward Keeseville.
Here, Route 9N ends and Routes 9 and 22 separate. The two will exchange corridors, with US 9 following the lake shore line while NY 22 remains mostly inland. NY 22 enters Clinton County just north of Keeseville, and then leaves Adirondack Park beyond at the Peru town line.
Clinton County
Just south of the hamlet of Peru, the short NY 442 terminates at Route 22. In the hamlet itself, after the Little Au Sable River crossing, NY 22's other suffixed route, NY 22B, branches off further inland. NY 22 continues north of Peru, and returns to the Northway's side again in a mile. After another five miles (8 km), it has its first exit on the Northway near the now-closed Plattsburgh Air Force Base. It continues northeastward, crossing the Saranac River into Plattsburgh, the first city and most populous community NY 22 has passed through since White Plains.
NY 22 runs along South Catherine Street for a few blocks, then divides into one-way couplets for the first time since Westchester County, with northbound traffic moving a block to the east to follow Oak Street, while southbound traffic comes down North Catherine Street. It parallels US 9 for a couple of blocks, intersecting NY 3 (Cornelia Street) just a block west of its eastern terminus at that highway. After Boynton Avenue, the separate streets reunite and turns northwest just before it has its second and final exit with the Northway. Just after the exit, NY 374 begins along the westbound route as NY 22 turns to the north once again.
The highway follows the railroad tracks into Beekmantown until it bears left at a fork, trending further west to Beekmantown Corners, where another short local road, NY 456, comes to its western end. After crossing into the next town, Chazy, NY 22 bears left again at another fork to drift further to the west. The terrain around the road becomes increasingly wooded, with long unbroken stretches of pine, in the northern portion of the town. This is briefly broken at another western terminus of a short local road, NY 191, in the hamlet of Sciota.
Route 22 continues past Sciota in a fairly straight north-northwesterly course through more woods with small home and farm clearings. Those yield to mostly fields just before the Great Chazy River, after which NY 22 comes to an end at US 11 in Mooers.
History
Old roads
The road from the modern-day Bronx (then part of Westchester County) through White Plains to Bedford and points north was originally an old Indian path. This path was later used and widened by the first European settlers. During colonial times, the road was known as "the road to Bedford and Vermont". Further north, near Lake Champlain, the route now used by Route 22 was used by the St. Francis Indians of Canada as they went south to find warmer fishing areas. The old road was also used heavily during the American Revolution to transport iron south from the mines in the Adirondacks.
Once White Plains became the county seat of Westchester in 1759, the road between this village and the city of New York (then encompassing only Manhattan) became an important route and was established as the White Plains Post Road. Before 1797, the main road heading to points north and east out of Manhattan went via Kingsbridge along the old Boston Post Road. A new bridge over the Harlem River (the original Harlem Bridge) was opened in 1797, shortening the route out of Manhattan. This also relocated the Boston and White Plains Post Roads to a new alignment along Third Avenue and Boston Road. The White Plains Post Road separated from the Boston Post Road in Bronxdale, with the road to Boston heading east and the road to White Plains heading north. The old White Plains Post Road roughly followed the alignment of modern-day White Plains Road, which was laid out in 1863. (The original post road was to the east of the modern-day avenue). The White Plains Post Road continued north through Olinville, Wakefield, and Mount Vernon, where the route shifted east to modern-day White Plains Post Road, going through Bronxville and Scarsdale to White Plains.
The stretch from Salem to the Vermont border in Granville was part of the old Northern Turnpike, which began in Lansingburgh and went along modern-day Route 40. The Northern Turnpike was chartered on April 1, 1799.
Public ownership
In 1868, the New York State Legislature formed a commission "to regulate, grade, widen, gravel, and improve the old White Plains Post Road", which was amended in 1870 to "macadamize the road" between Mount Vernon and White Plains. The post road south of Mount Vernon, which was part of New York City, was later widened between 1902 and 1908.
State highways were first formally defined by the state legislature in 1909 and given numeric designations, although these initial designations were not publicly signed. Portions of modern Route 22 were defined as part of legislative routes 1 and 22. Legislative route 1 went from the New York City line north along the White Plains Post Road to White Plains, then detoured to Harrison (via Westchester Avenue), before proceeding north to Armonk (via modern NY 120). Legislative route 1 continued north along modern NY 22 to Austerlitz, where it then turned northwest to Valatie (via modern NY 203), then followed US 9 to Albany. Legislative route 22 had two segments. The southern segment began in Troy, following NY 7 to Hoosick, then went north along modern NY 22 up to Putnam Station (south of Ticonderoga).
Route 22 designation
In 1924, New York signed several major state roads with route numbers. Most of Legislative route 1 was designated as NY 22, but with a direct route between White Plains and Armonk. Also, instead of continuing to Valatie, NY 22 initially ended at Hillsdale (at the intersection with NY 23). By 1929, the road to Valatie had been improved and NY 22 was extended to U.S. Route 9, with a length of . The middle section of modern NY 22 was designated in 1924 as NY 24, running for from Stephentown to Comstock. The portion of modern NY 22 north of Whitehall remained unnumbered in 1924 but gained the designation of NY 30 in 1925, when the original NY 30, which began in Mechanicville, was extended north of Whitehall to the Canadian border. In the 1930 renumbering, the NY 24 and NY 30 designations were both reassigned elsewhere. The NY 22 designation was extended north along old NY 24 and NY 30, incorporating newly improved roads between Austerlitz and Stephentown, resulting in a route length of . The segment of old NY 22 between Austerlitz and Valatie was renumbered to NY 203.
In December 1934, at the insistence of the Automobile Club of New York, several numbered routes were extended and signed within New York City, with NY 22 being one of these routes. NY 22 was extended south from the Mount Vernon line in the Bronx along White Plains Road, then it shifted via East 233rd Street to Webster Avenue until Fordham Road (US 1). From Fordham Road, it continued south along the Grand Concourse (overlapped with NY 100), crossing into Manhattan via East 149th Street to the 145th Street Bridge. In Manhattan, the NY 22/100 pair continued south along Lenox Avenue, 110th Street, Fifth Avenue, 96th Street, and Park Avenue, ending at Houston Street (NY 1A). By 1941, the alignment within Mount Vernon was shifted east to use Columbus Avenue and South 3rd Avenue (current NY 22), continuing its route to New York City via East 233rd Street as before. On January 1, 1970, the NY 22 designation was removed from Manhattan and most of the Bronx, and the short piece remaining in the city was realigned to meet US 1 at its current southern terminus.
U.S. Route 7
In the original plan for the U.S. Highway System, as approved by the Bureau of Public Roads in November 1926, U.S. Route 7 was defined as beginning in New York City and designated on the alignment of NY 22 to Amenia, where it shifted northeast into Sharon, Connecticut to use old New England Route 4 through Massachusetts and Vermont all the way to the Canadian border. Apparently New York State did not approve this plan, and by mid-1927 the official route log published by AASHO (now known as AASHTO) had been amended so that the southern end of US 7 began in Norwalk, Connecticut instead.
State Route 9N concurrency
When the 1930 New York State Route renumbering occurred, the stretch from Ticonderoga to Keeseville (now concurrent with New York State Route 9N was Route 22 alone. Route 47 was also located at an intersection with Route 22 in Ticonderoga. From Westport to Keeseville, Route 9N was then known as New York State Route 195, and was concurrent with Route 22. At the time, Route 9N only stretched from Elizabethtown to Keeseville, and by 1938, was extended over 195 and 47, becoming concurrent with 22 up to Keeseville.
Also, during the 1930s, Route 8, which ended in Chestertown, was extended onto 9N, where it made a 3-way concurrency from Ticonderoga to Crown Point, where it turned off the highway onto Bridge Road. Route 8 remained intact along this routing until the late 1960s, when Route 8 was truncated back to NY 9N in Hague.
Realignments
Over the course of many years, several sections of NY 22 were straightened, realigned to new roads, or both. Some old alignments are still either county-maintained or state-maintained. Several old alignments are still marked in Dutchess County: NY 980G (a reference route) in Dover Plains at the south junction with NY 343; County Route 81 between Wingdale and Amenia in the town of Amenia; and County Route 6 between the hamlets of Wingdale and Dover Plains, along the west bank of the Tenmile River, in the town of Dover. Within the 44/22 concurrency, the intersection with County Route 5 south of Millerton is also a former alignment of Route 22.
Before the construction of I-684, NY 22 continued northeast along Sodom Road north of Brewster on what is now County Road 50, a dead-end road maintained by Putnam County. Modern NY 22 joins the I-684 roadway at Exit 10 (the northern terminus of I-684) and connects to the surface road on the opposite side of the Croton River via the NY 981B connector. South of Copake Falls, the state also still maintains an old alignment designated as NY 980F. North of Copake Falls, the northern half of the original alignment was designated as an extension of NY 344.
2008 truncation
NY 22 originally extended past its current terminus at US 11 to the Canadian border via Hemmingford Road, with the road continuing as Quebec Route 219 in Canada. The northern terminus of NY 22 was truncated in 2008 to end at US 11 in Mooers, and no longer connects to the border. The segment of NY 22 north of US 11 was already maintained by Clinton County (with no concurrent designation) and was signed all the way up to the border's Customs station. The route, now ending in Mooers, was truncated from to , as the Hemmingford Road segment was long. The truncation also eliminated the concurrency with US 11.
Suffixed routes
NY 22 has two suffixed routes, both in the North Country.
Major intersections
See also
External links
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