New York State Route 52

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NY Route 52
Length:	108.72 mi[1] (174.97 km)
West end:	PA 652 in Narrowsburg
Major junctions:	NY 17 in Liberty US 209 in Ellenville I-84 in Newburgh US 9W in Newburgh US 9 in Fishkill I-84 in Fishkill Taconic in East Fishkill
East end:	US 6 south of Carmel
Counties:	Sullivan, Ulster, Orange, Dutchess, Putnam
Numbered highways in New York < NY 51 NY 52A > Interstates - U.S. Routes - State Routes

New York State Route 52 is a state highway in Southern New York, running west to east in a rough arc, from the Pennsylvania border at the Delaware River near Narrowsburg in Sullivan County to Carmel, New York, in Putnam County. It crosses the Hudson River via the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. It and NY 55, which it closely parallels and even shares two blocks of downtown Liberty, are the two major east-west routes of the mid-Hudson region.

With the exception of the section routed onto Interstate 84, 52 is a two-lane road for its entire length, often traveling through rural areas but also serving as the main thoroughfare of many towns it passes through. In the west, the highway offers some superb scenery as it approaches, climbs over and then descends the Shawangunk Ridge before entering the Catskills. For much of its eastern half, it runs closely parallel to I-84 when not multiplexed with it.

[edit] Route description

Route 52 runs through distinct regions: an eastern third in a rugged, lightly-populated area from the Delaware River valley, south of the Catskills to the Shawangunk Ridge; the middle into Orange County and including the bridge and the I-84 multiplex; and finally the last east of the Hudson from where it leaves 84 to the eastern terminus.

[edit] Delaware to Shawangunks

Although much of its length runs through less remote territory than NY 55, at its western end it is 52 that lies further from New York City. From the bridge at Narrowsburg it joins NY 97 briefly, then strikes out into the countryside trending gradually northwards until, by the time it picks up NY 17B for a short distance at Fosterdale, it is firmly headed north.

The western half of Sullivan County is actually less developed and populated despite its flatter topography, as the summer resort industry Sullivan is known for was and is concentrated in the eastern towns of the county, closer to the Catskills. Much of the surrounding land is farms or woods. Thus there is no direct trunk route for 52 to follow, and it is here routed along and cosigned with county roads, which it feels more akin to then a state highway (indeed, some sections are maintained by the county). Some older-style New York State Route signs, with the "NY" on top, can be seen here.

At Kenoza Lake NY 52A, 52's only suffixed subroute, goes off to the west near a historic stone bridge. A few miles later, at tiny Jeffersonville, the only incorporated village in the eastern half of the county, 52 finally bends back eastward and becomes a roadway more up to state highway standards. The trip through the hamlets of Youngsville and White Sulphur Springs to Liberty passes much more quickly than the previous section.

In Liberty, the first town of any major consequence along 52, it meets up with 55 and the two are even multiplexed for a few blocks downtown. At the village's eastern limit, it crosses the NY 17 Quickway, exactly a hundred driving miles from the city. Beyond 17, it passes some shopping plazas, then heads out into the country again along a good quality roadway fitting a state highway.

Sullivan's eastern half offers the hamlets of Loch Sheldrake and Woodbourne, both of which bustle in the summertime, particularly with Orthodox Jews from the city who have traditionally taken their families to the area for the summer. Sullivan County Community College and the two nearby state prisons keep the economy going in the off-season.

52 carries NY 42 over the Neversink River, after which it leaves northward to the end of its southern segment. Just past Woodbourne Correctional Facility, it crosses into Ulster County. The highway from there to Ellenville is largely a straight, gradual descent off the Catskill Plateau through primarily wooded and undeveloped land (a few buildings on either side of the road mark the hamlets of Dairyland and Greenfield Park), with the Bush Kill coming in on the south side as the village approaches.

View of Catskills from 52 along Shawangunk Ridge east of Ellenville.

At Ellenville's western boundary, 52 appears to split (see below). Once across the village, just to the east, 52 encounters its most significant terrain feature, the Shawangunk Ridge, which looms over the village. The highway turns abruptly southward at the village's eastern boundary and begins a gradual three-mile (4.8-km) climb up the ridge. This is a very scenic stretch of 52, as several overlooks on the upper portions offer sweeping views of the Catskills, and closer to it there are the range's famous brilliant cliffs. The Long Path hiking trail also leaves its aqua blazes on a stretch of the road it shares.

At the crest, near the road to Cragsmoor, 52 reaches nearly 1,500 feet (457 m) in elevation, turns again eastward, and begins an equally gradual descent.

[edit] Shawangunks to Hudson

The wooded route down the east side of the Shawangunks offers its own vistas of the land ahead — at one point, on clear days, it is possible to see all the way to the Hudson Highlands. Walker Valley is the first town encountered, at the point where the highway begins to level out again. From here several more miles of road, through more open country, brings 52 to the Shawangunk Kill bridge and the Orange County line.

Downtown Pine Bush immediately presents itself, along with what was until recently the well-developed hamlet's only traffic light, at NY 302's northern terminus. A mile later, with a Dunkin' Donuts on one side and a McDonald's on the other, the hamlet ends and countryside resumes.

The new Walden High Bridge, carrying Route 52 across the Wallkill River.

There are many panoramas of the Shawangunks along the next stretch of highway, as it passes mostly open fields with a few wooded interruptions. Six miles (9.6 km) east of Pine Bush, 52 enters Walden, the largest town on it thus far, first as North Montgomery Street. This changes to South Montgomery at the Oak Street intersection, where 52 temporarily turned on to cross the Wallkill River at the Low Bridge from 2003-2005 while a new High Bridge (officially the Walden Veterans' Memorial Bridge) was being built. The new bridge, where 52 becomes Main Street, crosses the river at least 50 feet (15 m) above water level and provides a view to the waterfalls and power station just upriver, the largest impoundment of the Wallkill.

In downtown Walden, 52 meets NY 208 and is multiplexed with it for two short blocks, before resuming its eastward course. The road ahead runs through more farmlands and woodlots, across the Catskill Aqueduct and past the swampy south end of Orange Lake. In the Town of Newburgh, after crossing under the New York State Thruway, residential and commercial development becomes continuous along the road. 52 intersects NY 300 in the built-up area known as Gardnertown for an early settler, whose house is visible from the junction, and then passes through the suburban area around Algonquin and Winona lakes, both fed by Orange Lake's outlet brook, before reaching I-84.

The Newburgh-Beacon Bridge

[edit] Hudson to Carmel

52 and 84 have been gradually converging for several miles at this point, and the two merge at the interstate's Exit 8, just outside the Newburgh city limits, to cross the Hudson together via the bridge. They will continue to run close to each other for the rest of 52's route. The multiplex lasts seven miles (11.2 km), well into Dutchess County before 52 resumes its pre-bridge course at Exit 12, becoming the main street of yet another village, Fishkill. Just east of the downtown area is the major junction with US 9, and 52 through Fishkill is often heavily congested at rush hour as drivers use it as a shortcut past similarly-congested sections of I-84 from southbound 9.

I-84 overpass above 52 near Fishkill

East of Route 9, there is still considerable development along the road although it opens up somewhat as it passes the southern termini of NY 376 and NY 82, in Hopewell Junction and Brinckerhoff to the Taconic State Parkway junction. Traffic lessens out past the Taconic as it is no longer a major connecting route in that direction, and after Stormville and NY 216 52 once again begins to feel like a country road, winding under a high bridge carrying 84 once again and crossing the Appalachian Trail as it leaves Dutchess to enter its last county, Putnam, at the hamlet of Ludingtonville.

Here, it reaches Lake Carmel, the most populous community along its entire route, where NY 311 provides a feeder route back to 84. Passing along the shore of the eponymous lake itself, it then reaches Carmel proper, and the eastern terminus of NY 301, before itself terminating at US 6 just south of town.

[edit] History

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• Route 52 between Walden and Pine Bush became renowned among UFO enthusiasts in the 1990s for sightings of supposed alien craft reverse engineered by the government and tested from nearby Stewart Air National Guard Base. Some even claimed they had been abducted here, and that aliens even lived in secret underground residences in the area.

• The section between Walden and I-84 follows the colonial-era South Plank Road. That name was used on street signs and for mail delivery until Orange County's late-1990s 9-1-1-mandated renumbering of houses.

• Guardrails had to be erected on both sides of the road south of Orange Lake in response to past accidents where drivers who might otherwise have survived perished in flooded cars.

• Before the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge was opened in 1963, 52 followed South Street across Newburgh to the ferry landing on the waterfront (a route still signed as reference route 980P). Across the river, in Beacon, it followed Main Street, now signed as Business-52 between NY 9D and the current exit.

[edit] US 106

West of Ellenville, NY 52 was originally part of U.S. Route 106. The route entered New York from Pennsylvania and followed modern NY 52 east to U.S. Route 209 in Ellenville, where it met the then-western terminus of NY 52. US 106 was later truncated to New York State Route 97 in Narrowsburg, allowing NY 52 to be extended westward along the former alignment of US 106. In 1973, US 106 was decommissioned in both New York and Pennsylvania, resulting in the extension of NY 52 to the Pennsylvania state line.^[2]

The split in NY 52 at the east end of Ellenville. Right fork has a state highway shield, left one has a green reference marker, suggesting both are state highways

.

[edit] Miscellanea

[edit] The Ellenville split

Across Ellenville, both Center and Canal streets carry 52 signage as they run parallel across the village. This results in each street being the optimum route across the village depending on the direction of travel.

When coming from the west, taking the fork onto Canal at the western boundary allows a driver to build up speed before beginning the climb up the Shawangunks. Conversely, quickly bearing onto Center at the end of that climb means not having to stop at the fork on the other side of the village.

[edit] The Walden parkway

From just west of Tin Brook to the western village line, 52 is paralleled by an older route of East Main Street that remains in use, separated by a thin median with some trees on it. The combination of that and the village parkland taking up much of the property south of the highway gives it a parkway feel as it leaves the village.

[edit] Major intersections

County	Location	Mile[1]	Road(s)	Notes
Sullivan	PA state line	0.00	PA 652	Eastern terminus of PA 652.
	Narrowsburg	0.69	NY 97	Western terminus of overlap.
	S of Narrowsburg	1.45	NY 97	Eastern terminus of overlap.
	Fosterdale	11.09	NY 17B	Southern terminus of overlap.
	E of Fosterdale	11.55	NY 17B	Northern terminus of overlap.
	Kenoza Lake	14.85	NY 52A	Southern terminus of NY 52A.
	Village of Liberty	29.82	NY 55	Western terminus of overlap.
		30.04	NY 55	Eastern terminus of overlap.
		31.45	NY 17	Exit 100 (NY 17).
	Woodbourne	38.52	NY 42	Western terminus of overlap.
		38.79	NY 42	Eastern terminus of overlap.
Ulster	Ellenville	50.29	US 209
Orange	Pine Bush	62.47	NY 302	Northern terminus of NY 302.
	Walden	69.88	NY 208 Ulster Avenue/Orange Avenue	Overlap spans two blocks (~300 feet).
	Gardnertown	~76.6	I-87/Thruway
		77.18	NY 300 Union Avenue
	City of Newburgh	78.84	I-84	Exit 8 (I-84/NY 52). Western terminus of overlap.
		80.43	US 9W NY 32	Exit 9 (I-84/NY 52).
Dutchess	Beacon	83.03	NY 9D/NY 52 BUS	Exit 10 (I-84/NY 52). Western terminus of NY 52 BUS.
	Fishkill	86.18	I-84 NY 52 BUS	Exit 11 (I-84/NY 52). Eastern terminus of NY 52 BUS. Eastern terminus of I-84/NY 52 overlap.
		87.28	US 9
	Brinckerhoff	88.94	NY 82	Southern terminus of NY 82.
	Hopewell Junction	93.33	NY 376	Southern terminus of NY 376.
	East Fishkill	94.27	Taconic
	Stormville	95.44	NY 216	Southern terminus of NY 216.
	E of Stormville	~97.8	I-84
Putnam	Lake Carmel	105.35	NY 311	Southern terminus of NY 311.
	Carmel Hamlet	108.44	NY 301	Eastern terminus of NY 301.
	S of Carmel Hamlet	108.72	US 6

Legend
Crossing, no access	Concurrency termini	Decommissioned	Unconstructed	Closed

[edit] See also

• New York State Route 52 Business, the former routing of NY 52 through Beacon

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} NYSDOT Traffic Data Report - Routes 32 to 55. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.
2. ^ New York Routes - New York State Route 52

[edit] External links

• NY 52 @ State Ends