New York State Route 212 (NY 212) is an east–west

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 ...

located entirely within

Ulster County Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

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 * '' ...

, in the United States. It runs for from an intersection with

NY 28 New York State Route 28 (NY 28) is a state highway extending for in the shape of a "C" between the Hudson Valley city of Kingston and southern Warren County in the U.S. state of New York. Along the way, it intersects several major ...

in the interior of the

Catskill Park The Catskill Park is in the Catskill Mountains in New York in the United States. It consists of of land inside a Blue Line in four counties: Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster. As of 2005, or 41 percent of the land within, is owned by ...

to a junction with U.S. Route 9W (US 9W) and

NY 32 New York State Route 32 (NY 32) is a north–south state highway that extends for through the Hudson Valley and Capital District, New York, Capital District regions of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is a two-lane sur ...

on the west bank of the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

, providing a key interchange with the

New York State Thruway , direction_a = South , terminus_a = {{Jct, state=NY, I, 95 at the The Bronx, Bronx–Yonkers, New York City line , junction = {{plainlist, * {{jct, state=NY, I, 287, Parkway, Saw Mill, NY, 119 in Elmsford, New York, Elmsford * {{jct, state=NY, ...

( Interstate 87 or I-87) along the way. The mostly rural two-lane route serves the communities of

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

and Saugerties while passing Cooper Lake, Kingston's reservoir. NY 212 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York.

Route description

NY 212 begins at an intersection with

on the banks of

Esopus Creek Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Uls ...

in the town of Shandaken. The two-lane route initially runs north along the creek, serving 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 ...

Mount Tremper Mount Tremper, officially known as Tremper Mountain and originally called Timothyberg, is one of the Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. It is located near the hamlet of Phoenicia, in the valley of Esopus Creek. At in elevatio ...

before curving northeast into a narrow, wooded valley surrounding Beaver Kill, a tributary of Esopus Creek. While inside the gully, the highway winds its way along the southeastern base of

itself, crossing into the town of

in the process. The valley widens slightly at the small hamlet of Willow, where NY 212 and Beaver Kill both make a turn to the southeast. Not far from Willow, Beaver Kill reaches its source at a point west of Cooper Lake, the main

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

for the city of Kingston to the southeast. Past the lake, NY 212 picks up the Saw Kill, another tributary of the Esopus, as it heads through a small, isolated community named Shady. From Shady, NY 212 runs southward along the Saw Kill, intersecting County Route 33 (CR 33, named Glasco Turnpike) on its way into the hamlet of Bearsville. Here, the highway makes a pronounced turn to the east at a junction with CR 45 (Wittenberg Road) in the center of the community. The change in direction carries NY 212 into the adjacent, much larger hamlet of Woodstock, where the route gains the name Tinker Street. In Woodstock, the road runs past a handful of residential blocks before meeting CR 41 (Tannery Brook Road) on the western edge of the community's commercial center. After another block, NY 212 curves east onto Mill Hill Road, which brings the route southeastward through the rest of the central business district. The line of businesses eventually comes to an end at an intersection with NY 375 (West Hurley Road). As the route heads away from NY 375, it winds its way northeastward out of the hamlet, paralleling the Saw Kill through another wooded area to a junction with CR 30 (Zena Road). At this point, the Saw Kill bends southward along CR 30 while NY 212 continues northeast across the Blue Line delimiting the eastern boundary of

and the

– Saugerties town line. Outside of the park, the route runs across mostly level terrain to the hamlet of Shulits Corners, where it meets CR 32 (Glasco Turnpike) amongst a cluster of homes in the center of the community. From here, NY 212 runs northeast past intermittent stretches of homes separated by dense forests for before curving eastward at an intersection with CR 35 (Blue Mountain Road) west of the hamlet of Veteran. The highway subsequently winds through Veteran on its way toward the

valley.

It soon reaches the outskirts of the village of Saugerties, where it connects to

at a junction adjacent to the

(

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) ...

). NY 32 turns east here,

overlap Overlap may refer to: * In set theory, an overlap of elements shared between sets is called an intersection, as in a Venn diagram. * In music theory, overlap is a synonym for reinterpretation of a chord at the boundary of two musical phrases * O ...

ping with NY 212 as both routes pass over the Thruway and serve the southern half of an interchange (exit 20) with the toll road. Heading away from the Thruway, NY 32 and NY 212 trend southeastward, reaching a junction with the north end of CR 31 (Kings Highway) and crossing

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

's River Subdivision rail line on their way into the village limits. As Ulster Avenue, the highway passes several commercial blocks before intersecting Market Street near the center of Saugerties. At this point, the two routes head south for a block on Market Street and east for another block on Main Street to reach

US 9W U.S. Route 9W (US 9W) is a north–south U.S. Highway in the states of New Jersey and New York. It begins in Fort Lee, New Jersey, as Fletcher Avenue crosses the US 1–9, US 46, and the Interstate 95 (I-95) approac ...

(Partition Street) in the village center. NY 212 ends here while NY 32 turns south to follow US 9W southbound on Partition Street. Northbound US 9W, meanwhile, continues northeast on Main Street toward the Hudson River.

History

The modern-day alignment of NY 212 dates to 1828, when the state of New York passed a bill authorizing the construction of the Saugerties and Woodstock Turnpike Road Company. Passed on April 21, 1828, this new turnpike was to be constructed from the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

of Saugerties at the store of

Jeremiah Russell Jeremiah Russell (January 26, 1786 – September 30, 1867) was an American businessman and banker who served one term as a U.S. Representative from New York from 1843 to 1845. Biography Born in Saugerties, New York, Russell received limited s ...

's Reformed Dutch Church. Provisions were made to extend the turnpike road to Shandaken and the house of Barnet Eighmey. This new road would be no wider than wide with a roadbed. If they chose to build a ditch, the roadbed would only need to be . The company would erect at least one toll gate and provisions for more, which would rate at a cost relevant to every traveled. However, tollgates would not be allowed to be constructed within the village of Woodstock. On May 2, 1864, the state of New York approved the request of the company to construct a new toll gate on the right-of-way, located between Saugerties and the King's road ( Ulster CR 31). The company would also discontinue the toll-gate located on the King's road. Modern NY 212 was added to the New York state highway system in stages over the course of the early 20th century. The first segment was acquired by the state on July 9, 1902, and extended for from the Woodstock–Saugerties town line to CR 35 in Saugerties. An adjacent section was added on August 15 of that year, extending state maintenance of the road west to CR 45 in Woodstock. The portion of the highway east of CR 35 was added in two parts, the earliest of which became state-maintained on January 11, 1905, and extended from CR 35 to the Saugerties village limits. The section within the village was accepted into the state highway system 15 years later on July 30, 1920. State maintenance was extended northwest from CR 45 to Willow in the early to mid-1920s and southwest to Mount Tremper around the end of the decade. The Mount Tremper–Saugerties state highway did not have a posted route number until the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, when it was designated NY 212. In 1930, a contract was let by the state to construct a brand new state highway connecting the hamlet of

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

. This new state highway would be wide, The contract was handed to Huie Construction Company of Saugerties, which began by clearing the right-of-way and grading through hills. Construction included the building of three new steel bridges and numerous concrete bridges and culverts. Construction of the road involved selecting from various locations, and the one selected was from an old farm in the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas cl ...

. The new route was built with extra space on both sides for stuff such as a bridal path.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{NYSR external links, type=N, nyroutes=yes, termini=yes, route=212 212 Catskills Transportation in Ulster County, New York

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References

External links