New York State Route 86 (NY 86) is a long state highway located within

Adirondack Park The Adirondack Park is a part of Forest Preserve (New York), New York's Forest Preserve in northeastern New York (state), New York, United States. The park was established in 1892 for “the free use of all the people for their health and pleasur ...

in northern New York, in the United States, linking Franklin County to Essex County. The western terminus of the route is at NY 30 in the hamlet of Paul Smiths. The eastern terminus is at NY 9N in Jay. Although largely a two-lane road, NY 86 is one of only two east–west highways in the High Peaks area of the Adirondack Park (the other being NY 73), providing a major link between hamlets and tourist destinations. NY 86 was established in the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, largely replacing a realigned NY 3. North of Saranac Lake, NY 86 initially followed modern NY 186 before being rerouted onto its modern alignment. The portion of NY 86 north of Harrietstown was once NY 192.

Route description

NY 86 begins at NY 30 in Paul Smiths, Franklin County. The route heads east through the town of Brighton, providing mountain views of

. After passing through the tiny communities of Easy Street and Gabriels and traversing the southern edge of Paul Smiths College, NY 86 turns south to serve Harrietstown, where it meets NY 186 at the hamlet of the same name. NY 86 continues southward to Saranac Lake, the largest community on NY 86 in Franklin County. Moving through Saranac Lake, the business and tourism anchor for the area, NY 86 is well marked, but follows local roads to an intersection with NY 3 in the village center. The routes briefly

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 ...

before splitting at the northern edge of Lake Flower. NY 86 Western terminus

East of NY 3, NY 86 becomes the primary lakeside roadway as it follows the northern and eastern extents of Lake Flower into Essex County. Roughly into the county, NY 86 leaves the lakeshore and turns northeastward toward the small hamlet of Ray Brook. Farther east, the highway travels through the Clifford R. Pettis Memorial Forest before arriving in the village of Lake Placid as Saranac Avenue. NY 86 proceeds eastward through the village, coming within view of Lake Placid before turning south onto Main Street at the western shore of Mirror Lake. As Main, NY 86 runs through the village and along Mirror Lake as the major tourist thoroughfare, passing numerous businesses and the sites of the 1932 and

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

. At the southern edge of the village, Route 86 intersects the western terminus of NY 73. Saranac Lake - Lake Flower

Outside of Lake Placid, NY 86 enters the town of Wilmington, home of the Olympic Ski Center at Whiteface Mountain. Through Wilmington, the road largely follows the Ausable River northeastward, providing scenic views as it heads through "Wilmington Notch," noted for trout fishing. At an intersection with the eastern terminus of NY 431 in the hamlet of Wilmington, NY 86 turns eastward and crosses into the town of Jay, where it terminates at NY 9N at the town's village green. Route 86 runs adjacent to the west branch of the Ausable River through a stretch that ''Trout Unlimited's Guide to America's 100 Best Trout Streams'' describes as one of the finest river fishing spots in the United States.

History

What is now NY 86 from Paul Smiths to Jay via Saranac Lake and Lake Placid was originally part of the

Theodore Roosevelt International Highway The Theodore Roosevelt International Highway was a transcontinental North American highway, from the era of the auto trails, through the United States and Canada that ran from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. Its length was about . Route desc ...

, an

auto trail The system of auto trails was an informal network of marked routes that existed in the United States and Canada in the early part of the 20th century. Marked with colored bands on utility poles, the trails were intended to help travellers in ...

extending across the North American continent from the

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to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, NY 3 was assigned to the entirety of the highway within New York. NY 3 remained in place up to the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York when it was rerouted onto its modern alignment through the North Country. The portion of former NY 3 from Harrietstown to Jay, as well as a section of former

NY 10 New York State Route 10 (NY 10) is a north–south state highway in the Central New York and North Country regions of New York in the United States. It extends for from the Quickway ( NY 17) (Future Interstate 86) in Deposit ...

(modern NY 186) from Harrietstown to

Lake Clear Lake Clear is a hamlet and a lake in Franklin County, New York, United States. The area is named for Lake Clear, part of the original Seven Carries canoe route. It is located in the town of Harrietstown. In the late 19th century, Lake Clear was ...

, was redesignated as NY 86. North of Harrietstown, the former alignment of NY 3 became NY 408 from Harrietstown to Gabriels and the western half of NY 192 from Gabriels to Paul Smiths. NY 408 was co-designated as part of NY 365 , and ultimately supplanted by NY 365 . NY 365 was rerouted in the mid-1940s, leaving the Harrietstown–Gabriels roadway unnumbered. In the early 1950s, NY 365's old routing between Harrietstown and Gabriels was designated as NY 192A, a spur route of NY 192. NY 192A was removed from the state highway system on January 7, 1980, when NY 192 was rerouted east of Gabriels to follow NY 192A. On March 28, 1989, NY 192 was eliminated in much the same way as its spur route as NY 86 was rerouted to follow NY 192 through Gabriels to Paul Smiths. NY 86's former routing past the Adirondack Regional Airport became NY 186.

Major intersections

NY 86A

NY 86A was a spur route connecting NY 86 in Lake Placid to NY 9N in Keene. It was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York and replaced by an extended NY 73 in the mid-1950s.

References

External links