North end: I-95 in Greenwich, CT Constructed 14 August 1957 | Length 37.8 km | |
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Existed: August 14, 1957 – present South end: I-95 / US 1-9 / US 46 in Fort Lee, NJ Counties Manhattan, The Bronx, Westchester County, New York | ||
Interstate 95 (I-95) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Canada–United States border near Houlton, Maine. In the U.S. state of New York, I-95 extends 23.50 miles (37.82 km) from the George Washington Bridge in New York City to the Connecticut state line at Port Chester. From the George Washington Bridge, which carries I-95 across the Hudson River from New Jersey into New York City, it runs across upper Manhattan on the Trans-Manhattan Expressway and continues east across the Harlem River on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge and onto the Cross Bronx Expressway. In the Bronx, I-95 leaves the Cross Bronx at the Bruckner Interchange, joining the Bruckner Expressway to its end. It then continues northeast on the New England Thruway out of New York City into Westchester County and to the Connecticut state line, where I-95 continues on the Connecticut Turnpike.
Contents
Manhattan
I-95 enters New York from New Jersey on the George Washington Bridge on a concurrency with US 1 and US 9 (US 46 ended at the state line). As the bridge's eastern approach enters Fort Washington Park, I-95 enters exit 1, which services NY 9A (Henry Hudson Parkway). Access is also provided to 181st Street. After crossing Fort Washington Avenue, the interstate goes underground, providing a ramp to 178th Street, which is where US 9 forks to Broadway. I-95 continues east under Washington Heights, entering an interchange with the Harlem River Drive along with Amsterdam Avenue.
The Bronx
After exit 2, I-95 crosses over the Harlem River and enters the Bronx, entering an interchange with the Major Deegan Expressway (I-87), which is marked both exit 1C (following with the Cross Bronx Expressway) and exit 3A B (matching with the Trans-Manhattan Expressway). Now the Cross-Bronx Expressway, I-95 and US 1 continue east over University Avenue and enter exit 2A, which serves Jerome Avenue. Crossing over the Grand Concourse, the six-lane expressway crosses into exit 2B, which is for Webster Avenue. This interchange also marks the eastern end of the I-95/US 1 concurrency. Passing south of Tremont Park, the Cross Bronx westbound serves exit 3, which serves Third Avenue.
At East 176th Street, the Cross Bronx Expressway turns southeast, entering exit 4A eastbound, which marks the northern terminus of I-895 (the Sheridan Expressway) and no connection is provided to East 177th Street nearby. After crossing the Bronx River, the expressway enters a full interchange, exit 4B, with the Bronx River Parkway. After a curve from the parkway, the Cross Bronx enters exit 5A, which connects to White Plains Road in Parkchester. Continuing southeast, the roadway enters exit 5B, Castle Hill Road, which is an eastbound-only exit. After Castle Hill Road, the route enters exit 6A, which reaches the Hutchinson River Parkway at the Bruckner Interchange. Changing to the Bruckner Expressway, which runs to the northeast, I-95 enters the Bruckner Interchange with the northern termini of I-678 and I-278; the Cross Bronx Expressway Extension turns southeast along I-295 at the same interchange.
After the Bruckner Interchange, I-95 crosses Tremont Avenue before crossing under I-695 (the Throgs Neck Expressway). Southbound, exit 7B serves I-695, while northbound the two interstates merge. Continuing north, the Bruckner Expressway and I-95 parallel Bruckner Boulevard and run along the western edge of Pelham Bay Park. Entering exit 8A southbound services Westchester Avenue while northbound, exits 8B and 8C serve the Pelham Parkway and Shore Road through the park, which marks the northern end of the Bruckner Expressway. Now known as the New England Thruway, I-95 leaves Pelham Bay Park and enters exit 9, a junction with the Hutchinson River Parkway. In the middle of the interchange with the Hutchinson River, exit 10 forks to the left, reaching Gun Hill Road.
Now paralleling Baychester Avenue, which also services exit 11 and Bartow Avenue, the New England Thruway continues north and enters exit 12 which connects to Baychester. Conner Street is connected to via exit 13 before I-95 turns east and crosses over the Hutchinson River. After crossing the river, the route enters an interchange once again with the Hutchinson River Parkway (exit 14) but this time westbound only.
Westchester
Crossing through the northern reaches of Pelham Bay Park, I-95 turns more northeast and enters Westchester County. Now in Pelham Manor, the route crosses through Pelham Country Club, entering exit 15, which connects to US 1 (Main Street). After US 1, the route crosses out of the Pelham Country Club, entering New Rochelle.
Crossing over Metro-North Railroad tracks, the interstate turns northeast and crossing through downtown New Rochelle, reaching exit 16, serving several local streets including Cross Avenue, Cedar Street and Garden Street. North of exit 16, the New England Thruway enters its lone toll barrier along the alignment, serving the northbound direction only. The road continues northeast through New Rochelle, passing exit 17 as it enters the town of Mamaroneck. Exit 17 connects to Chatsworth Avenue in the Larchmont section. Passing a pedestrian footbridge for the Larchmont station, crossing over NY 125 (Weaver Street). Winding north through Mamaroneck, I-95 enters exit 18A, servicing Fenimore Road in the village of Mamaroneck.
Turning northeast again, I-95 enters exit 18B, a partial cloverleaf interchange with Mamaroneck Avenue before crossing into the town of Harrison. The road turns east, crossing over NY 127 (Harrison Avenue), and enters exit 19, the western terminus of the Playland Parkway, which connects the expressway to Rye Playland as the road enters Rye. The route crosses through the Rye Village area, entering exit 20, which connects to US 1 (Boston Post Road) and the village. Almost immediately after exit 20, exit 21 marks the eastern end of the Cross-Westchester Expressway (I-287). Proceeding westbound, exit 21 and nearby exit 22 (Midland Avenue and Port Chester) are merged, but are separate exits going eastbound. Crossing through the eastern edges of Port Chester, I-95 reaches the Byram River and crosses into Connecticut, becoming the Connecticut Turnpike.
History
Robert Moses first recommended the construction of what became the New England Thruway in 1940. Construction began in 1951, but major work on the highway did not commence until 1956-1957. By 1950, the New York State Thruway Authority assumed control of the construction and made the New England Thruway a part of the Thruway toll system. Construction lasted until 1961.
I-95 was assigned on August 14, 1957, as part of the establishment of the Interstate Highway System, and has always run along its current path in New York. The route was overlaid on the under-construction New England Thruway northeast of New York City and assigned to the then-proposed Cross Bronx and Bruckner Expressways through New York City. The final sections of the Cross Bronx and Bruckner Expressways were finished in 1963 and 1972, respectively. Prior to the 1972 completion of the Bruckner, coinciding with the completion of the new Bruckner Interchange, the old Bruckner Boulevard (once part of NY 164) was used by through traffic.
Mileage-based exit numbers
As part of an experiment, I-95 was one of the few roads in New York to receive mileage-based exit numbers. This was implemented over both the Port Authority section and the NYSDOT section of the highway (Exits 1A through 8C). The Thruway section (which had originally carried its own sequential exit numbers) was then renumbered by the Thruway Authority to a system of sequential numbers starting from 9 (where the mileage-based system left off). This led to a situation in which Exits 1 through 8 were mileage based (all but one of which contained lettered suffixes as a result) and Exits 9 through 22 were sequential.
Around 2005, NYSDOT began a project to renumber I-95 with sequential numbers throughout. However the idea never fully got traction with all three agencies. The Port Authority did complete the renumbering on its section of the road. NYSDOT itself renumbered only one section of the road in Parkchester. Meanwhile, the Thruway Authority did not renumber any of the exits on its stretch of the road. This led to a situation from 2005 through 2012 in which some exits were signed with two different numbers, while some numbers were repeated twice, but only on some of the signs.
Finally, in 2012, NYSDOT restored the mileage-based numbers to its portion of the highway, which once again line up with the Thruway portion. This has eliminated all of the exit number conflicts, with one exception. The exception exists because the Port Authority has not changed the numbers back on its portion of the road creating a confusing situation at the Amsterdam Avenue exit, which is maintained by NYSDOT southbound but the Port Authority northbound. The exit is signed as Exit 1B southbound (which is the proper number within the mileage-based), but as Exit 2 northbound (a holdover from the failed renumbering project).
Exit list
Exit numbers on the New England Thruway section of I-95 are sequential, but exit numbers on the remaining section are mileage-based.