Bear Mountain State Parkway

Route description

The parkway begins at an intersection with US 6, US 9 and US 202 south of Annsville Creek in Peekskill and proceeds eastward through the north side of Peekskill as a two-lane undivided roadway. During its first mile, the parkway intersects a street at-grade and connects to Highland Avenue by way of an interchange before widening to three divided lanes (two westbound, one eastbound) at an interchange with North Division Street. The parkway intersects another street at-grade prior to entering Cortlandt.

In Cortlandt, the parkway meets US 6 at an interchange and becomes a two lane undivided roadway again and meets several surface roads ahead of an intersection with US 202 and NY 35. Here, the Bear Mountain Parkway merges with the two-lane US 202 and NY 35, creating a physical but not official concurrency extending eastward into neighboring Yorktown. Roughly one mile from the town line, the parkway separates from US 202 and NY 35 and progresses to the northeast as a four-lane undivided roadway. After a short distance, the parkway becomes separated by a median prior to merging with the southbound Taconic State Parkway. The northbound Taconic Parkway is accessed by way of US 202 and NY 35.

NY 987H, the internal NYSDOT designation for the parkway, terminates at both ends of the physical overlap with US 202 and NY 35 and applies only to the segments of the road separate from US 202 and NY 35. The parkway was designated but not signed as NY 821 prior to the creation of the current reference route system.

History

Originally proposed by Robert Moses, the Bear Mountain State Parkway was built between 1929 and 1932 by the Westchester County Parks Commission as part of the Bronx River Parkway's extension into northern Westchester County. It was intended to provide a quick, scenic trip from the Bronx to the Bear Mountain Bridge and Harriman State Park. In 1941, the Taconic State Park Commission assumed control of the Bronx River extension. The commission subsequently combined the north–south portion of the extension with the then-Eastern State Parkway to create the Taconic State Parkway. The east–west section of the extension between the Taconic Parkway and Annsville was renamed the Bear Mountain State Parkway.

At the time of the parkway's construction, the Bear Mountain Bridge was an extremely important crossing of the Hudson River for Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, and Orange County residents. The construction of the Tappan Zee Bridge and the traffic issues caused by the two-lane roads descending to the Bear Mountain Bridge have diminished the bridge's popularity since then, and consequently, the Bear Mountain Parkway was never finished.

In 2000, there was an initiative to complete the final missing piece of the Bear Mountain Parkway. Although most, if not all, of the right-of-way has already been acquired, the issue not overcome was whether to allow trucks on the parkway.

Major intersections

The entire route is in Westchester County.