New York State Route 221 (NY 221) is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

Cortland County, New York Cortland County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population of Cortland County was 46,809. The county seat is Cortland. The county is named after Pierre Van Cortlandt, president of the convention a ...

, in the United States. Its western terminus is at an intersection with

NY 38 New York State Route 38 (NY 38) is a north–south state highway in the Finger Lakes region of New York in the United States. Its southern terminus is at an intersection with NY 96 in the town of Owego in Tioga County. The north ...

in the town of Harford. The eastern terminus is at a junction with

NY 26 New York State Route 26 (NY 26) is a north–south state highway that runs for through Central New York in the United States. Its southern terminus is located at the Pennsylvania state line south of the town of Vestal in Broo ...

and NY 41 in the town of

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. Near its western end, NY 221 intersects New York State Route 200. Together, NY 200 and NY 221 form a loop route off NY 38 between the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

s of Harford and Harford Mills within the town of Harford. NY 221 originally followed modern NY 200 and ended at U.S. Route 11 (US 11) in

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

when it was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York. It was extended to its present length by the following year and realigned to serve Harford later in the decade. NY 200 was assigned in the 1940s.

Route description

NY 221 begins at an intersection with

in the town of Harford. The route progresses northward through a small hamlet, crossing the

Owego and Harford Railway Owego may refer to two locations in Tioga County, New York: * Owego (village), New York * Owego (town), New York See also * Oswego (disambiguation) {{geodis ...

and serving a

mobile home A mobile home (also known as a house trailer, park home, trailer, or trailer home) is a prefabricated structure, built in a factory on a permanently attached chassis before being transported to site (either by being towed or on a trailer). Us ...

park. At the intersection with Owego Hill Road, NY 221 turns eastward as a two-lane road, where the route changes backdrops into a more rural and residential mix. After about a mile, the route intersects with NY 200, a route that connects NY 221 back to NY 38 and the hamlet of Harford Mills. At this junction, NY 221 turns north once again, while NY 200 begins on the former right-of-way used by NY 221. The surroundings remain the same as the route continues, turning to the northeast, and soon east at the junction at County Route 131 (CR 131; Babcock Hollow Road). The rural road bends to the southeast gradually, entering the town of Lapeer, turning east again until it meets CR 133 (Clarks Corner Road). The highway soon reverts to a southeast direction, passing to the north of Beaver Pond and the county line, while NY 221 enters the hamlet of Hunts Corners and intersects with CR 136 (Jennings Creek Road). Here, NY 221 changes direction again, following a northeasterly path out of the hamlet. It bypasses the nearby hamlet of Clarks Corner and soon intersects with the eastern terminus of CR 133, which gives way to NY 221 as the state road merges with the east–west county highway. NY 221 continues on an eastward track into the town of

, where it descends into the

Tioughnioga River The Tioughnioga River () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Chenango River in central New York in the United States. It drains a dissected ...

valley and enters the village of Marathon. Within the village, the route gains the West Main Street moniker and heads through a mix of residential and commercial areas. NY 221 crosses intersections with CR 134A and CR 134B and passes the former Marathon railroad depot before crossing the

New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (or New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and also known as the Susie-Q or the Susquehanna) is a Class II American freight railway operating over 400 miles (645 km) of track in th ...

and the Tioughnioga River in the center of the community. After crossing the river, the renamed Main Street heads northeast through the village, intersecting with US 11 (Cortland Street) just ahead of an interchange with Interstate 81 (I-81) at the latter's exit 9. After the exit from I-81, NY 221 reenters another rural area and turns eastward past Dean Pond. After intersecting with CR 161B (Texas Valley Road) and CR 161C (Merrill Creek Road), NY 221 crosses Merrill Creek and winds through farmland. Entering the town of

, NY 221 crosses the southern terminus of CR 167 (Bloody Pond Road) and makes a gradual curve to the north while intersecting with CR 169 (Landers Corners Road). NY 221 continues north to the hamlet of Willet, where it ends at an intersection with

and NY 41.

History

The state of New York assumed maintenance of two highways linking the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Harford and Harford Mills—one directly connecting the two and a second, more circuitous route to the east—in the early 20th century. The direct route and most of the loop road were improved to state highway standards as part of a project contracted out on October 16, 1914, and were added to the state highway system on December 10, 1915, as State Highway 1075 (SH 1075). Each end of SH 1075 connected to the segment of the loop route between modern NY 38 and Owego Hill Road, which was rebuilt as part of an earlier project awarded on September 19, 1906, and included in the state highway system on July 5, 1908, as SH 379. Both designations are

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and used only for inventory purposes. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the south half of the loop road became part of NY 221, a new route extending from NY 38 at Harford Mills to US 11 in the village of Marathon. NY 221 was extended east to its current eastern terminus in Willet by the following year. The portion of the route between the Harford loop road and Willet utilized a highway added to the state highway system sometime after 1926. NY 221 was rerouted to follow its current alignment to the hamlet of Harford in the mid-1930s, and its former routing to Harford Mills was redesignated as NY 200 in the 1940s.

Major intersections

NY 221

NY 200

References

External links

{{Good article

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Transportation in Cortland County, New York