The highway system of

Essex County, New York Essex County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,381. Its county seat is the hamlet of Elizabethtown. Its name is from the English county of Essex. Essex is one of only 2 counties that are ...

, comprises of roads maintained by the

New York State Department of Transportation The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the development and operation of highways, railroads, mass transit systems, ports, waterways and aviation facilities in ...

, the county, and its towns and villages. Eighteen state-maintained highways enter the county, which account for a combined of the state highway mileage in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The state roads are supplemented by of county-maintained highways, most of which serve as

collector road A collector road or distributor road is a low-to-moderate-capacity road which serves to move traffic from local streets to arterial roads. Unlike arterials, collector roads are designed to provide access to residential properties. Rarely, juris ...

s between state highways. Several highways within the borders of the county serve as connections to ferry landings and bridges across

Lake Champlain , native_name_lang = , image = Champlainmap.svg , caption = Lake Champlain-River Richelieu watershed , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = New York/Vermont in the United States; and Quebec in Canada , coords = , type = , ...

. Essex County is served by one

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

I-87 Interstate 87 may refer to either of two unconnected Interstate Highways in the United States: * Interstate 87 (New York), a highway running from New York City north to the Canadian border in Champlain, New York. * Interstate 87 (North Carolina) ...

, known locally as the Adirondack Northway. US 9, the only

United States Numbered Highway The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these hi ...

in the county, closely parallels I-87 as both highways head north–south across the county. Essex County is also served by 11 state touring routes and six reference routes, the latter of which are short

unsigned Unsigned can refer to: * An unsigned artist is a musical artist or group not attached or signed to a record label ** Unsigned Music Awards, ceremony noting achievements of unsigned artists ** Unsigned band web, online community * Similarly, the c ...

connectors. The longest touring route in Essex County is

NY 9N New York State Route 9N (NY 9N) is a north–south state highway in northeastern New York in the United States. It extends from an intersection with U.S. Route 9 (US 9), NY 29, and NY 50 in the city of Saratoga Sp ...

, which runs for through the county. The county's shortest touring route is NY 373, which runs for in the northeastern part of Essex County.

Highways

Interstate and US Highways

There is one interstate highway in Essex County,

, stretching for from the

Warren County Warren County is the name of fourteen counties in the USA. Some are named after General Joseph Warren, who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War: * Warren County, Georgia * Warren County, Illinois * Warren County ...

line near Schroon Lake to the

Clinton County Clinton County may refer to: *Counties named for George Clinton, first and third Governor of New York, and later the fourth Vice President of the United States: **Clinton County, New York **Clinton County, Ohio *Counties named for DeWitt Clinton, s ...

line north of Keeseville. The highway was assigned after being built in 1967 to connect Keeseville to the Clinton County line, paralleling the alignment of US 9. Northway Exit 34 (NY 915F)

There is one U.S. Route in Essex County, US 9, which runs for in two segments. The first, spanning , enters from Warren County near Schroon Lake before entering Clinton County temporarily. The second, spanning , stretches from both lines of Clinton County. US 9 was assigned in the area in 1926 along a stagecoach route and has remained virtually unchanged since.

State touring routes

There are 10 state touring routes in Essex county, the longest of which is

at , which stretches from the Warren County line near Lake George to the Clinton County line north of Willsboro. The shortest is NY 373, running for . Some state highways which once entered Essex County have been eliminated entirely, including NY 192 (now part of NY 86), NY 427 and NY 86A (both now part of NY 73); others, like NY 8, still exist but no longer pass through the county. NY 8 was once concurrent with Routes 9N and 22, which continue into Essex County from Warren County, and the route ended in Crown Point at the Vermont border. The northernmost segment of NY 8's former routing through the county is now NY 185.

State reference routes

There are six reference routes in Essex County; a seventh, NY 910L, was redesignated NY 185 on April 4, 2008, as part of a

project to rehabilitate the Champlain Bridge. Around this time, there was an addition to the highway system, with the designation of NY 915K, a short connector leading to exit 33 on the Adirondack Northway. The longest reference route is NY 910M at , running from

John Brown's Grave The John Brown Farm State Historic Site includes the home and final resting place of abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859). It is located on John Brown Road in the town of North Elba, 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Lake Placid, New York, where ...

to NY 73. The other three reference routes are NY 910K (part of the

Blue Ridge Road Blue Ridge Road is a long roadway in Essex County, New York, in the United States. The road is designated as County Route 84 (CR 84) from NY 28N in Newcomb to Interstate 87 (I-87) in North Hudson, and as New York State Rou ...

), NY 912T (the shortest reference route, at , and a connector to NY 373), and NY 913Q, which serves

Mount Van Hoevenberg Mount Van Hoevenberg is a summit point located in the Adirondack Mountains in the Town of North Elba, Essex County, New York, 9 miles (15 km) east-southeast of the village of Lake Placid. Named for Henry Van Hoevenberg (1849–1918) (no ...

in North Elba.

County routes

There are over 60 county routes in Essex County, signed with the

pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

al county highway shields found in most of the state. The first in order is CR 2, also known as Corduroy Road and Creek Road in Ticonderoga; the last is CR 86E, known locally as Saint Huberts Road in Saint Huberts. In Keene, there are five county routes along NY 73 that are former alignments of NY 86A, which previously ran along that alignment.

List of Interstate, US, and state highways

The chart below shows the Interstate, U.S., and state highways that enter or have previously entered Essex County, and the towns they serve or served in order of how the road encounters them. The "Formed" column refers to the date that the route was assigned or extended into the county; likewise, "Removed" refers to the date that the route ceased to exist within the Essex County limits. The measurements given in the "Length" columns refer to a route's length within Essex County.

List of county routes

County routes in Essex County are signed with the

Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices The ''Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways'' (usually referred to as the ''Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices'', abbreviated MUTCD) is a document issued by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of the Unit ...

-standard yellow-on-blue pentagon route marker.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Highways in Essex County, New York, List of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

Transportation in Essex County, New York