U.S. Route 209 in New York

Infobox road
state=NY
type=US
route=209
alternate_name=
length_mi=61.14
length_round=2
length_ref=
established=
direction_a=South
starting_terminus=
junction=
direction_b=North
ending_terminus=
counties=Orange, Sullivan, Ulster
previous_type=NY
previous_route=208
next_type=NY
next_route=210

New York's section of U.S. Route 209 follows a straight, northeasterly course for almost its entire length, from the Pennsylvania state line where it crosses the Delaware River at Port Jervis to the Kingston area. This corridor, first used for long-distance transport by the Old Mine Road in colonial times and then the historic Delaware and Hudson Canal in the early 19th century, keeps it in the scenic valley between the Catskill Plateau and the Shawangunk Ridge.

Except for the expressway at the northern end, the remnant of a much more ambitious plan to make the entire roadway one, 209 remains a two-lane rural road for much of its length in the state. The small communities along it are separated by great distances, and the road is a vital access link.

Route description

US 209 passes through Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties on its course through New York. Half of its total mileage is in Ulster County.

Orange County

Route 209 enters New York still concurrent with US 6, via the Mid-Delaware Bridge. As Pike Street, the two roads dip two blocks into Port Jervis into a short underpass beneath the former Erie Railroad right-of-way. It once carried several tracks but today is down to three, one of which carries Metro-North's Port Jervis Line to its final stop just west of the highway after the underpass.

At the next light, 6 and 209 turn right as NY 42's southern segment and NY 97 both reach their southern termini to the left. The US highways cross a mile of Port Jervis as Main Street, until the concurrency ends at Kingston Avenue, where 209 turns left. It is now on the northeast heading it will follow almost all the way to Kingston. After passing through a residential neighborhood, and then briefly dividing into two one-way streets, it reaches the Deerpark town line at the building that houses both Port Jervis High School and Anna S. Kuhl Elementary School.

Farms and woodlands border the road as it continues northeastward, up the Neversink River valley, passing the small hamlets of Huguenot and Godeffroy. Their names recall the early settlement of the region. The Neversink eventually turns northwestward. After the bridge, a driveway along the river leads to a county park at the site of bridge footings which once carried the Delaware and Hudson Canal over the river, the first remnant of this National Historic Landmark along the highway. It is followed by another of the Port Jervis schools, Hamilton Bicentennial Elementary, and then 209 reaches the hamlet of Cuddebackville.

This hamlet, slightly more developed than the ones to the south, is centered around the blinker at the western terminus of NY 211, which takes traffic from there to Otisville and Middletown. North of Cuddebackville, the landscape around the highway becomes more and more wooded as it begins to climb onto the Catskill side. After passing the last Deerpark hamlet, Westbrookville, a few miles further on, 209 crosses the county line.

ullivan County

In the town of Mamakating, the only town it will pass through in the county, 209 hews closely to the Catskill side of the slope, running roughly parallel to the county's southeastern border on the other side of the Shawangunks. Here the valley floor is increasingly given over to the swampy areas around the Basher Kill, which has replaced the Neversink, and the road passes through ever more wooded country. As these widen into Basha Kill Wildlife Management Area, 209 trends westward briefly and then reaches its exit with NY 17, soon to become Interstate 86. A mile further north the highway reaches Wurtsboro, named for the canal's founders, its first traffic light since Cuddebackville and first significant settlement since Port Jervis. It continues northeastward out of the village past Wurtsboro-Sullivan County Airport, and then to a large, recently-constructed Kohl's warehouse that mandated another traffic light. Around here the road also crosses the divide between the Delaware and Hudson watersheds at a gentle drop.

The landscape continues to be somewhat swampy on the valley floor, but it is more open around the road, allowing for frequent views of the Shawangunks to the east. Just before reaching Summitville, another remnant of the canal crosses the road. This is one of two sections the county has declared a linear park, and its former towpath is available for walking and jogging. Access is available again north of Phillipsport, the next hamlet to the north. Beyond that community, 209 trends eastward and runs closer to the foot of the Shawangunks as it exits the county.

Ulster County

Passing through the Town of Wawarsing's hamlet of Spring Glen, the road quickly veers westward, back to the Catskill side of the valley. This coincides with a rise in the Shawangunks that is visible from much of the road. Here more of the countryside is farmed, and there is more development, culminating in the Nevele resort just south of Ellenville, the first settlement since Wurtsboro. Traffic slows to the center of town, 209's junctions with Canal and Center streets, both of which are signed as NY 52, where the road briefly expands to four lanes. To the east 52 climbs the Shawangunks en route to Newburgh; the westward portion takes travelers to Liberty.As 209 passes a large supermarket and the former Imperial Schrade knife plant, Ellenville gives way to Napanoch, an adjoining hamlet where NY 55 comes in from Rondout Reservoir to the west. It joins 209 for the first concurrency since Port Jervis. Immediately prior to this junction, the highway crosses Rondout Creek, the valley's new drainage, which it will also parallel for some distance. Just north of Napanoch, the Victorian towers of Eastern Correctional Facility can be seen across the valley at the base of the Shawangunks; also located nearby is its companion medium-security institution, Ulster Correctional Facility.

The valley begins to widen, and farms become more visible off the highway, taking advantage of the Rondout's flood plain. The combined routes 209 and 55 begin to take a more easterly orientation. Several miles from Napanoch, at the gas station that marks the hamlet of Kerhonkson, US 44 begins to the east, taking 55 with it across the ridge to Poughkeepsie. 209 continues into the Town of Rochester, folllowing the creek through the ever-widening valley to the hamlet of Accord and then into the next town, Marbletown, where the road returns to its northeast course.At a traffic light just short of the hamlet of Stone Ridge, NY 213 comes in from High Falls to the east and joins 209. A half-mile (1 km) to the north, after passing a strip mall, the combined roads enter the hamlet via the Main Street Historic District, passing a stone house where George Washington once slept.

At Cooper Street, near the northern end of the historic district, 213 leaves for Olive Bridge and Ashokan Reservoir. With the space between the Catskills and the Shawangunks now miles wide, 209 descends gently to the side of another important local stream, Esopus Creek, to the west of the highway after it leaves the hamlet of Marbletown.

In the Town of Hurley an overpass marks the center of the historic hamlet of Hurley. The stone houses built by the Dutch settlers of the area date to the early 18th century; the small town also served as New York's state capital for two months in 1777 following the burning of Kingston by the British. For these two reasons, it has been designated a National Historic Landmark District.North of Hurley more segments of the canal appear beside the road, which widens to four lanes in very open country. 209 crosses the Esopus, at this point also the Blue Line, thus entering the Catskill Park. Two miles (3.2 km) from the hamlet a median strip begins and the road becomes an expressway as it reaches its junction with NY 28, which allows access to the Catskill communities to the west and the New York State Thruway and Kingston to the east. Closely paralleling the nearby Thruway, the expressway turns first north, then due east to cross first the Thruway and then the Esopus again, leaving the Catskill Park in the process. Three-quarters of a mile (1.1 km) east of that bridge, overhead signage announces the end of 209 at the exit with US 9W. The expressway continues to the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge over the Hudson as NY 199.

History

US 209 in New York was initially U.S. Route 6 and later U.S. Route 6N.

Major intersections

NYint
county=Orange
cspan=4
location=Port Jervis
lspan=3
mile=0.00
type=concur
road=jct|state=PA|US|6|US|209
notes=PA line at Mid-Delaware Bridge over Delaware River; overlap continued from Milford, PANYint
mile=0.61
road=jct|state=NY|NY|42|NY|97
notes=Southern termini of NY 42 and NY 97NYint
mile=0.86
road= east
type=concur
notes=Northern end of overlapNYint
location=Cuddebackville
mile=8.91
road=
notes=Western terminus of NY 211NYint
county=Sullivan
location_special=S of Wurtsboro
mile=17.60
road=
notes=Exit 113 (NY 17)NYint
county=Ulster
cspan=7
location=Ellenville
mile=30.80
road=
notes=NY 52 intersects at both Canal and Center streetsNYint
location=Napanoch
mile=32.54
road= west
type=concur
notes=Southern terminus of overlapNYint
location=Kerhonkson
mile=36.92
road=jct|state=NY|US|44|NY|55|dir2=east
type=concur
notes=Northern terminus of US 209/NY 55 overlap; western terminus of US 44NYint
location_special=S of Stone Ridge
mile=47.59
road= east
type=concur
notes=Southern terminus of overlapNYint
location=Stone Ridge
mile=48.43
road= west
type=concur
notes=Northern terminus of overlapNYint
location_special=W of Kingston
mile=57.51
road=jct|state=NY|NY|28|I|87|NYST|to2=yes
notes=Interchange; access to I-87/Thruway at exit 18 via NY 28 eastboundNYint
location=Lake Katrine
lspan=1
mile=61.14
road=
notes=Expressway continues to Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge as NY 199

References

External links

* [http://www.gribblenation.net/nyroutes/ind/200_209.htm#209 New York Routes - U.S. Route 209]
* [http://www.milebymile.com/main/United_States/New_York/United_States_209/United_States_New_York_road_map_travel_guides.html Mile by Mile travel guide]