New York State Route 25A

NYS Route 25A
Route information
Auxiliary route of NY 25
Maintained by NYSDOT and NYCDOT
Length: 72.91 mi[3] (117.34 km)
Existed: ca. 1927[1][2] – present
Major junctions
West end: I-495 in Long Island City
  I-278 in Woodside
I-678 in Flushing
I-295 in Bayside
Sunken Meadow Parkway in Fort Salonga
East end: NY 25 in Calverton
Location
Counties: Queens, Nassau, Suffolk
Highway system

Numbered highways in New York
Interstate • U.S. • N.Y. (former) • Reference • County

← NY 25 NY 25B →

New York State Route 25A (NY 25A) is a state highway on Long Island in New York in the United States. It serves as the main east–west route for most of the North Shore of Long Island, running from the Queens Midtown Tunnel in the New York City borough of Queens at its western terminus to Calverton in Suffolk County at its eastern end.

Known for its scenic route through decidedly lesser-developed areas such as Brookville, Fort Salonga, Centerport, and the Roslyn Viaduct, 25A begins as 21st Street in Long Island City. As you go farther through 25A, it is then known as Jackson Avenue for a short period and is variously named Northern Boulevard east of Queens Plaza (NY 25), North Hempstead Turnpike, Main Street, Fort Salonga Road, and North Country Road. It merges with NY 25 for approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in Smithtown.

Contents

Route description

NY Route 25A begins at its western terminus at exit 13 (which is the first exit) off Interstate 495 (the Long Island Expressway) at Long Island City in the New York City borough of Queens. Route 25A is known in this area as 21st Street. As you follow 25A, it becomes Jackson Avenue and is a 4-lane road (and remains a 4-lane road well into Nassau County). Just past the intersection with Queens Boulevard (State Route 25), at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge, 25A becomes Northern Boulevard.

New York City: Borough of Queens

Route 25A carries the Northern Boulevard name through Long Island City, Woodside, Jackson Heights, Corona, Flushing, Bayside, Douglaston and Little Neck.

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (Interstate 278) intersects with Northern Boulevard at the Woodside/Jackson Heights border. 25A intersects with the Grand Central Parkway at the Corona/Flushing Meadows border, where it becomes a limited-access roadway. This was a former segment of the Belt Parkway system, that was intended to be part of the formerly proposed Astoria Expressway.

As the roadway continues east, past Citi Field in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, it intersects with Interstate 678. Northern Boulevard continues through Flushing towards Bayside. In Flushing, Northern Boulevard was formerly known as Broadway. In Bayside, Northern Boulevard intersects with the Clearview Expressway (Interstate 295). Further east toward, it crosses over the Cross Island Parkway at Alley Pond Park, then goes through Douglaston and Little Neck, and crosses the city line into Nassau County.

Nassau County

25A, still carrying the Northern Boulevard name, crosses into Nassau County at the Great Neck hamlet known as University Gardens. It winds its way around a steep curve in the Great Neck area and descends into Manhasset and the "Miracle Mile" shopping area. It intersects with NY 101 just south of Port Washington and then splits. Old Northern Boulevard (which once carried the 25A designation) is the old route which passes through the village of Roslyn. Northern Boulevard itself bypasses the village and carries 25A over the Roslyn Viaduct into Greenvale and then to Brookville, where the route passes the New York Institute of Technology and the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University before intersecting with NY 107.

After Route 107, 25A intersects with NY 106 and quickly loses 2 lanes and becomes a simple 2-lane country road. Just past Cold Spring Road, it returns to a 4-lane road and then crosses the Suffolk County line and intersects with NY 108.

Northern Boulevard, or North Hempstead Turnpike

At its intersection with State Route 106, some feel Northern Boulevard becomes North Hempstead Turnpike (and there are in fact one or two North Hempstead Turnpike signs along the route east of Route 106.)[4] However, there are signs as far east as Cove Road in Oyster Bay Cove that show the designation is still Northern Boulevard. The last sign for Northern Boulevard is just before Cold Spring Road, near the Nassau/Suffolk line, so a case can be made that Northern Boulevard extends from Queens, all the way across Nassau, and on to the Suffolk line. The only problem with this is that, while the Old Brookville Police Department and Martin Viette Nursery show their street addresses as on Northern Boulevard, the correct legal street addresses for the Hunter's Hook horse farm and the Muttontown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship are 6080 and 6090 North Hempstead Turnpike[5], respectively. Thus, the Turnpike clearly extends west of Route 106. On an old, undated Hagstrom's map (#2560A, of Westchester) ca. 1948, the Turnpike extends westerly at least to the Queens line.

Suffolk County

25A makes a sharp left turn just at its intersection with NY 108. It travels through Cold Spring Harbor before turing somewhat south and into downtown Huntington, where it regains 4-lane status through the village and is known as Main Street. At the intersection of County Road 35 on the east side of Huntington, 25A (designated as East Main Street) becomes a 2-lane road and heads toward Centerport, where it becomes Fort Salonga Road through Centerport, Northport and Fort Salonga. 25A intersects with its first limited-access highway since the Cross Island Parkway back in Queens when it encounters the Sunken Meadow State Parkway. It also changes names from Fort Salonga Road to Main Street as it enters Kings Park, home to the now-closed Kings Park Psychiatric Center. East of this area it is shared with New York State Bicycle Route 25A.

25A makes a right turn at an intersection in San Remo (just east of Kings Park) and becomes St. Johnland Road. It heads further south towards Smithtown, where it intersects with NY 25 (Jericho Turnpike), at the Smithtown Bull, where NY Bike Route 25A ends. State Route 25 and 25A run concurrently through the village of Smithtown. Just past Edgewood Avenue in Smithtown, 25/25A loses the Jericho Turnpike name and the road is known as Main Street. On the east end of the village, at the intersection of 25/25A and the northern terminus of NY 111, the roads split. Route 111 heads to the South Shore of Long Island, 25 continues east and 25A heads on a north east path towards St. James and Stony Brook.

From Smithtown to Stony Brook, 25A is known as North Country Road. It also runs along much of New York State Bicycle Route 25 with occasional diversions. NY 25A passes the Stony Brook Museum and Carriage House before making a right to head due east towards SUNY Stony Brook. It intersects with County Road 97 (Nicoll's Road) and then passes through Setauket and into Port Jefferson (where it is known as West Broadway). Once 25A reaches the harbor, it makes a right turn and passes through the village of Port Jefferson (known again as Main Street.) Further south, at the intersection with NY 112, 25A makes a sharp left turn and heads along Hallock Avenue towards its intersection with NY 347 (Nesconset Highway). 25A almost literally "takes over" 347 at this point, becoming a wide highway (wider than at any other point) before intersecting with County Road 83 (Patchogue-Mount Sinai Road) and passing through Mount Sinai and Miller Place before splitting again and bypassing Rocky Point (as it did back in Roslyn.) The old section (without state designation) passes through the village while 25A continues towards Shoreham and intersecting with County Road 46 (William Floyd Parkway) before coming to a fork. 25A veers right and heads southeast, while Sound Avenue, the other end of the fork, heads due east towards the North Fork of Long Island. It is not long after this split (about 1.5 miles) that 25A ends at Route 25, in Calverton, just west of Riverhead.

History

All of modern NY 25A east of the New York City limits was originally designated as part of NY 25 in the mid-1920s. At the time, the section of Jericho Turnpike between New York City and Smithtown was state-maintained but unnumbered.[1][6] It gained a designation ca. 1927 when it was designated as NY 25A.[1][2] By 1930, NY 25 was shifted southward onto its modern alignment between Smithtown and Riverhead while NY 25A was extended east over its former routing via Port Jefferson. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the alignments of NY 25 and NY 25A west of Smithtown were flipped, placing NY 25 on Jericho Turnpike and NY 25A on the more northerly route via Roslyn and Huntington.[7]

NY 25A was one of several routes that was extended west into New York City in mid-December 1934 when the city signed routes within its limits for the first time. The route followed Northern Boulevard west across northern Queens to Queens Boulevard, which at the time carried NY 24 and NY 25. Here, NY 25A joined NY 24 and NY 25 across the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan, where it followed 2nd Avenue and 57th Street for five blocks to meet NY 22 and NY 100 at Park Avenue.[8] The extension into Manhattan was eliminated by 1952 when NY 25A was truncated to the intersection of Northern and Queens Boulevards.[9] In the 1960s, NY 25A was extended southwestward along Jackson Avenue to meet the Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495) just east of where it enters the Queens–Midtown Tunnel.[10][11]

Ca. 1931, the east end of NY 25A was reconfigured to follow Sound Avenue across the north shore of Long Island from Wading River to Mattituck, where it rejoined NY 25.[7][12] The former routing of NY 25A between Sound Avenue and NY 25 west of Riverhead went unnumbered until the early 1940s when it was redesignated as NY 254.[13][14] NY 25A was moved back onto its original routing through the town of Riverhead in the early 1950s, supplanting NY 254 in the process.[9][15]

Former sections

The route was originally an east–west Indian trail used to get from the current North Hempstead Township to Flushing. There are segments of local streets that were part of the original Route 25A. These streets consist of local village downtown blocks and even residential streets. Segments like the Roslyn Viaduct, for example allow traffic to flow more freely over Hempstead Harbor, while the historic community below is preserved intact. The towns listed below contain the following former Route 25A segments.

Bypasses

Besides the Roslyn Viaduct and the Rocky Point Bypass, other attempts to realign Route 25A were planned by the New York State Department of Transportation. However public opposition thwarted these projects, out of fear that they would lower property values, and bring more traffic jams and rampant development. The proposed bypasses include:

Major intersections

County Location Mile[3] Destinations Notes
Queens
 Long Island City 0.00 I-495 (Long Island Expressway) Exit 13 (I-495)
0.91 NY 25 (Queens Boulevard)
Jackson Heights 3.07 I-278 (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) Exit 38 (I-278)
Corona 5.43 Grand Central Parkway Exits 9 E-W (Grand Central Parkway)
Flushing 6.28 I-678 (Whitestone Expressway) Exits 13 E-W (I-678)
Bayside 9.95 I-295 (Clearview Expressway) Exit 5 (I-295)
Douglaston 10.90 Cross Island Parkway Exits 31 E-W (Cross Island Parkway)
Nassau
 Flower Hill 16.52 NY 101 Southern terminus of NY 101
Brookville 21.18 NY 107 (Cedar Swamp Road)
East Norwich 24.37 NY 106 (Jericho-Oyster Bay Road)
Suffolk
 Cold Spring Harbor 28.41 NY 108 Northern terminus of NY 108
Huntington 31.17 NY 110 (New York Avenue)
31.71 CR 35 (Park Avenue)
Greenlawn 32.24 CR 9 (Greenlawn Road)
Kings Park 41.15 Sunken Meadow Parkway Exits SM5 E-W (Sunken Meadow Parkway); access to Sunken Meadow State Park
CR 11 (Pulaski Road)
Smithtown 45.93 NY 25 west Western terminus of NY 25 / NY 25A overlap; site of the Smithtown Bull
Village of the Branch 47.28 NY 25 east / NY 111 Eastern terminus of NY 25 / NY 25A overlap; northern terminus of NY 111
Stony Brook 53.74 CR 97 (Nicoll's Road)
Port Jefferson Station 58.55 NY 112 Northern terminus of NY 112
Mount Sinai 59.65 NY 347 Eastern terminus of NY 347
60.75 CR 83 (Patchogue-Mount Sinai Road)
East Shoreham 67.88 CR 46 (William Floyd Parkway)
Wading River 69.69 CR 25 (Wading River Road)
Calverton 72.91 NY 25 (Main Road)
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

  1. ^ a b c State of New York Department of Public Works (1926). Official Map Showing State Highways and other important roads (Map). Cartography by Rand McNally and Company. 
  2. ^ a b Standard Oil Company of New York (1927). Road Map of New York in Soconyland (Map). Cartography by General Drafting. 
  3. ^ a b "2008 Traffic Volume Report for New York State" (PDF). New York State Department of Transportation. June 16, 2009. pp. 77–78. https://www.nysdot.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/hds-respository/NYSDOT%20TVR%202008%20by%20Route.pdf. Retrieved January 31, 2010. 
  4. ^ Photo of North Hempstead Turnpike sign at NY 25A-Berry Hill Road intersection (GoogleMaps; Street View)
  5. ^ Muttontown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship; Contact us/Directions
  6. ^ "New York's Main Highways Designated by Numbers". The New York Times: p. XX9. December 21, 1924. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E13F73F5B12738DDDA80A94DA415B848EF1D3. Retrieved July 18, 2010. 
  7. ^ a b Dickinson, Leon A. (January 12, 1930). "New Signs for State Highways". The New York Times: p. 136. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50A15F6355A147A93C0A8178AD85F448385F9. Retrieved July 18, 2010. 
  8. ^ "Mark Ways in the City". The New York Times: p. XX12. December 16, 1934. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0A10F63558177A93C4A81789D95F408385F9. Retrieved July 18, 2010. 
  9. ^ a b Sunoco (1952). New York (Map). Cartography by Rand McNally and Company. 
  10. ^ Mobil (1965). New York (Map). Cartography by Rand McNally and Company. 
  11. ^ State of New York Department of Transportation (January 1, 1970) (PDF). Official Description of Touring Routes in New York State. http://www.greaternyroads.info/pdfs/state70.pdf. Retrieved July 11, 2010. 
  12. ^ Kendall Refining Company (1931). New York (Map). Cartography by H.M. Gousha Company. 
  13. ^ Standard Oil Company (1939). New York (Map). Cartography by General Drafting. 
  14. ^ H.M. Gousha Company (1940). New York – Western Suffolk County (Map). http://www.nycroads.com/history/1941_metro-7/. Retrieved July 11, 2010. 
  15. ^ Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (1950). New York (Map). Cartography by Rand McNally and Company. 
  16. ^ Atlas of Suffolk County Long Island, New York; Volume 2 (E. Belcher and Hyde; 1909)
  17. ^ Hagstrom Map (1958). Atlas of Western Suffolk County, New York (Map). 
  18. ^ Beers, Comstock & Cline Map (1873)
  19. ^ The Setauket - Port Jefferson Station Greenway Trail (The Civiv Associations of the Setaukets and Stony Brook)
  20. ^ Suffolk County Department of Planning. Proposed Park and Ride Center at Calverton (Map). 
  21. ^ "County Road System – County of Suffolk, New York" (PDF). Suffolk County Department of Public Works. December 29, 2005. http://www.greaternyroads.info/pdfs/suffcr.pdf. Retrieved April 2, 2010. 

'General references'

External links

Major streets of Queens