U.S. Route 9 in New York
U.S. Route 9 is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Laurel, Delaware, to Champlain, New York. In New York, US 9 extends from the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan to an interchange with Interstate 87 just south of the Canadian border in the town of Champlain. US 9 is the longest north–south U.S. Highway in New York. The portion of US 9 in New York accounts for more than half of the highway's total length.
The section of US 9 in New York passes through busy urban neighborhoods, suburban strips, and forested wilderness. It is known as Broadway in Upper Manhattan, the Bronx and much of Westchester County, and uses parts of the old Albany Post Road in the Hudson Valley, where it passes the historic homes of a U.S. President and Gilded Age heir. It passes through the downtown of Albany, the state capital, as well as Saratoga Springs. It penetrates into the deep recesses of the Adirondack Park and runs along the shore of Lake Champlain, where it is part of the All-American Road known as the Lakes to Locks Passage.
US 9 spawns more letter-suffixed state highways than any other route in New York, including the longest, New York State Route 9N. Outside of the cities it passes through, it is mostly a two-lane road, save for two freeway segments in the mid-Hudson region. For much of its southern half, it follows the Hudson River closely; in the north it tracks I-87.
Route description
The New York segment of US 9 can be divided into the section south of Albany, which parallels the Hudson River closely, and the portion north of Albany, which takes in a long section of the eastern Adirondacks. New York State Bicycle Route 9 follows the US 9 corridor, diverging from the route in areas not conducive to bicycling. For example, State Bicycle Route 9 follows US 9W in northern New Jersey and Rockland County, crosses the Bear Mountain Bridge, and follows NY 9D and NY 301 back to US 9 in Putnam County.New York City and the Hudson Valley
US 9 enters New York as part of an expressway, soon becoming a surface street and major urban and suburban artery. Outside of the expressway portions, it is mostly a two- or four-lane road save for a lengthy four-lane strip that leads into one of the expressways. It runs near the river more frequently in the southern areas, but it is never very far inland.New York City
The concurrency between US 1 and US 9 that began in New Jersey ends at the first exit from I-95 on the George Washington Bridge, when US 9 heads north via 178th and 179th streets to Broadway. Broadway passes through the Washington Heights neighborhood and then into Inwood, the northernmost neighborhood on the island. The region in which US 9 passes through has a large Latino immigrant population. The northernmost section of the New York City Subway's underground IND Eighth Avenue Line runs along Broadway between Dyckman Street and Inwood–207th Street stations. On the corner of 204th Street is the Dyckman House, the only original farmhouse left in Manhattan and a National Historic Landmark.Near the island's northern tip, at the intersection with 215th Street, the elevated IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway joins Broadway. At the very tip of Manhattan, just past Columbia University's Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, US 9 crosses the Harlem River Ship Canal via the Broadway Bridge, into Marble Hill, the only portion of Manhattan on the mainland. Marble Hill station here is the first of several along US 9.
At or just south of 230th Street, US 9, still Broadway, enters the Bronx. It draws alongside I-87, here the Major Deegan Expressway, the first of many encounters between the two roads on their northward course. At Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street station, the subway ends and Broadway runs along the west side of Van Cortlandt Park. The Henry Hudson Parkway interchange up this stretch adds NY 9A to US 9.
Westchester County
The northwestern corner of the park marks the city limit and US 9 enters Yonkers, where it is now known as South Broadway. It trends closer to the Hudson River, remaining a busy urban commercial street. In downtown Yonkers, it drops close to the river, becomes North Broadway and NY 9A leaves via Ashburton Avenue. US 9 climbs to the nearby ridgetop runs parallel to the river and the railroad, a few blocks east of both as it passes St. John's Riverside Hospital. The neighborhoods become more residential and the road gently undulates along the ridgetop. In Yonkers, US 9 passes Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site, which dates back to colonial America.It remains Broadway as it leaves Yonkers for Hastings-on-Hudson, where it splits into separate north and south routes for. The trees become taller and the houses, many separated from the road by stone fences, become larger. Another National Historic Landmark, the Henry Draper Observatory, was the site of the first astrophotograph of the Moon.
In the next village, Dobbs Ferry, US 9 has various views of the Hudson River while passing through the residential section. The highway passes by the Croton Aqueduct and nearby the shopping district of the village. After intersecting with Ashford Avenue, US 9 passes Mercy College, then turns left again at the center of town just past South Presbyterian Church, headed for equally comfortable Irvington. Villa Lewaro, the home of Madam C. J. Walker, the first African-American millionaire, is along the highway here. At the north end of the village of Irvington, a memorial to writer Washington Irving, after whom the village was renamed, marks the turnoff to his home at Sunnyside. Entering into the southern portion of Tarrytown, US 9 passes by the historic Lyndhurst mansion, a massive mansion built along the Hudson River in the early 1800s.
North of here, at the Kraft Foods technical center, the Tappan Zee Bridge becomes visible. After crossing over the New York State Thruway and I-87, here concurrent with I-287, and then intersecting with the four-lane NY 119, where NY 119 splits off to the east, US 9 becomes the busy main street of Tarrytown. Christ Episcopal Church, where Irving worshiped, is along the street. Many high quality restaurants and shops are along this main road. This downtown ends at the eastern terminus of NY 448, where US 9 slopes off to the left, downhill, and two signs indicate that US 9 turns left, passing the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, another NHL. The road then enters Sleepy Hollow, passing the visitors' center for Kykuit, the NHL that was the Rockefeller family's estate. US 9 then passes historic Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which includes the resting place of Washington Irving and the setting for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".
US 9 expands to four lanes at the trumpet intersection with NY 117; Broadway finally ends and US 9 becomes Albany Post Road. Entering Ossining's downtown, US 9 becomes Highland Avenue and continues to rise and fall, widen and narrow, through the riverside community. US 9 passes in close proximity to Sing Sing correctional facility before heading toward Croton.
Croton Expressway
Just after Ossining, NY 9A returns and merges with US 9 as it crosses the mouth of the Croton River and becomes the Croton Expressway. The only section built of the canceled I-487, the highway is generally built to Interstate standards. NY 9A leaves the freeway and returns to two lanes, following the parent route's old course, at the second exit in Croton-on-Hudson, where NY 129 reaches its western end. US 9 passes Indian Point Energy Center, a deactivated nuclear power plant that formerly supplied power to Westchester County and New York City. The facility is visible from the majority of the northern half of the expressway.The expressway veers inland for much of its route, preferring to follow the railroad tracks, rather than the river past the promontory at Buchanan. NY 9A, as a surface street, ends at its parent at the Welcher Street exit. It continues on a reconstructed, widened section through Peekskill. Despite recent upgrades to freeway standards, the northern end of the highway still maintains a lower speed limit.
from the freeway's northern terminus, US 202 and US 6 join the freeway. NY 35 reaches its western terminus at that same junction. The four-lane freeway's northern terminus is at a stoplight at a three-way intersection with the Bear Mountain State Parkway. The parkway continues straight from this intersection while US 6/US 9/US 202 turns left and crosses Annsville Creek.
Peekskill to Poughkeepsie
The routes enter the Annsville traffic circle north of that junction. While US 6 and US 202 remain concurrent and exit the circle on its west side, continuing up the river toward the Bear Mountain Bridge, US 9 exits the roundabout on the northeast side. It continues due north as the two-lane Albany Post Road. Running inland and mostly free of development behind the Hudson Highlands, it enters Putnam County. NY 403 reaches its eastern terminus at the same intersection where the Appalachian Trail crosses the road. The gas station here has, when in service, long been a favorite stop for thru-hikers. A few miles further to the north, at the Indian Brook Road intersection in the Indian Brook Road Historic District, the highway passes through Nelson's Corner, a rare surviving early 19th-century country hamlet. Old Albany Post Road, a remnant of US 9's original and one of the oldest dirt roads still in use in the country, comes in from the right on. The only other intersection of note in Putnam County is its main east–west state route, NY 301, which crosses US 9 several miles further north, just south of the Dutchess County line.US 9 passes Dutchess Mall, a dead mall, before passing the historic Van Wyck Homestead Museum. In Fishkill, the route meets I-84. At the Interstate exit, the road expands into a four-lane strip similar to the form it takes in Central New Jersey, complete with much commercial development on both sides. It will remain this way to Poughkeepsie. This stretch is an important, if often congested, transportation artery for the county.
Just north of I-84, US 9 clips off a corner of the village of Fishkill, where the intersection with NY 52 creates a heavily congested situation at rush hours since traffic going from southbound US 9 to westbound I-84 often uses it as a shortcut. The remaining miles to Wappingers Falls boast many intersections as well but are not quite as heavy.
In the town of Poughkeepsie, just after the northern terminus of NY 9D, US 9 passes another distressed mall, the Shoppes at South Hills, and its healthier, newer counterpart, the Poughkeepsie Galleria. further north, NY 113 swings to the west at a cloverleaf interchange near the IBM plant, once the region's major employer. Entering the city of Poughkeepsie, at Sharon Drive, US 9 returns to expressway status once again. north of Sharon, the highway connects to the US 44/NY 55 concurrency at an interchange in close proximity to the Mid-Hudson Bridge. This creates some unusual left exits, as traffic from US 44/NY 55 east wanting to go north on US 9 is routed into a U-turn south of the highway, and, likewise, northbound drivers on US 9 must get turned around to go west over the river. The limited-access highway comes to an end at the intersection with NY 9G near Marist College.