New York State Route 52 is a long
state highway in the southeastern part of
New York,
United States. It generally runs from west to east, beginning at the
Pennsylvania state line in the
Delaware River near
Narrowsburg, crossing the
Hudson River on the
Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, and ending in
Carmel. Route 52 and
Route 55, both major east-west routes of the
Mid-Hudson Region, run parallel to each other, intersecting in downtown
Liberty.
With the exception of the section
overlapping
Interstate 84, most of Route 52 is a two–lane road through lightly developed rural areas. The road west of the Hudson River serves a number of small communities in the southern
Catskills, while it closely parallels I–84 east of the Hudson.
Route description
Elevation profile of Route 52
Route 52 runs through several distinct regions: the
Catskills, a lightly-populated area from the
Delaware River to the
Shawangunk Ridge; a relatively flat area from the east slope of the Shawangunks through
Orange County to the
Hudson River; another flat area east of the Hudson to
Stormville; and part of the
Taconics south through
Kent and
Carmel to the eastern terminus.
Delaware to Shawangunks
NY 52's westbound exit from NY 17, merged with NY 55.
Although much of its length runs through less remote territory than NY 55, at its western end it is NY 52 that lies further from
New York City. From the bridge over the
Delaware River at
Narrowsburg (where the route links to
Pennsylvania Route 652 in
Pennsylvania) it joins
NY 97 briefly, strikes out into the countryside trending gradually northwards, picks up
NY 17B for a short distance at Fosterdale, and 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. There is no direct trunk route for 52 to follow, and it overlaps several county roads (indeed, some sections are maintained by the county as CR 24 [Race Course Road] from the PA line to NY 97, CR 111 [Narrowsburg Road] from NY 97 to the Cochecton town line, CR 112 [Narrowsburg Road] from the Tutsen town line to Lake Huntington, and CR 113 [Narrowsburg Road] from Lake Huntington to NY 17B & CR 114 [Newburgh Turnpike]). 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. The roadway becomes smoother and its right-of-way wider. 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 large town along NY 52, it meets up with NY 55 and the two even share 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, recently repaved.
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.
NY 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
Route 52 climbing the Shawangunks
At Ellenville's western boundary, 52 appears to split (see below).
Both sections intersect with
US 209 in the center of the village. 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.
[New York - New Jersey Trail Conference, Guide to the Long Path, Fourth edition 1996, ISBN 1880775069, 79-80.]At the crest, near the road to
Cragsmoor, 52 reaches nearly 1,500 feet (460 m) in elevation, turns again eastward, and begins an equally gradual descent.
Shawangunks to Hudson River
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 Newburgh-Beacon Bridge
In downtown Walden, NY 52 meets
NY 208 and overlaps 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.
Hudson River to Carmel
Historic downtown Fishkill
NY 52 and I-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.
Just past the bridge's
toll plaza are the ramps for
NY 9D, just on the northern line of the city of
Beacon. They will continue to run close to each other for the rest of 52's route. The concurrency 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.
Here it is the backbone of a
historic district. 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.
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.
I-84 overpass above 52 near Fishkill
Here, it follows the eastern shore of
Lake Carmel in
the community of the same name, the most populous along its entire route.
NY 311 crosses and provides a feeder route back to I-84. It continues along the lake, crossing a small inlet near its southern end, then descends through the small downtown of Lake Carmel, then reascends through the gently rolling, mostly wooded countryside. After passing a large shopping center, it enters
Carmel proper. A few blocks into downtown it reaches the eastern terminus of
NY 301 at the
county courthouse, just northeast of
Lake Gleneida, a controlled lake part of
New York City's water supply. A short distance past that along the lake, NY 52 ends at
US 6 next to
Reed Memorial Library.
History
Like many state highways in the region, Route 52 follows a number of roads originally built as private
turnpikes during the early 19th century. While the turnpikes made significant improvements to very poor roads, they were not popular with the public and eventually failed, leaving their roads for the county or state to maintain.
Predecessor turnpikes
One of these - the
Woodbourne and Ellenville Turnpike Company - ran from
Woodbourne to
Ellenville. After being incorporated by the
New York Legislature on
April 17,
1830, it built and opened a turnpike from Ellenville on the
Delaware and Hudson Canal west to Woodbourne in 1838, and later extended it further in that direction to
Liberty.
To the east of Ellenville, the
Newburgh and Ellenville Plank Road Company was proposed in late 1849 to build and charge
tolls on a
plank road between Ellenville and
Newburgh, major markets on the canal and Hudson respectively. It was incorporated on
March 24,
1850 under the state's
general incorporation law. The company decided shortly thereafter to build on a southern route; the supporters of a northern route organized the
Newburgh and Shawangunk Plank Road two weeks later. Both roads were completed in December 1851; an opening celebration for the Newburgh and Ellenville was held at Ellenville on
December 22. The south route is now, with some modifications, part of Route 52, while the north route carries parts of
Route 32 and
Route 300, becoming a county road (Bruyn Turnpike) west of
Wallkill. In 1895 the
Walden and Orange Lake Railroad, later part of the
Orange County Traction Company, built a
trolley line along the old turnpike between
Orange Lake, then the end of a suburban line from Newburgh, and
Walden. It carried passengers and freight, including milk, until its demise in 1925.
Other former turnpikes used by Route 52 include short lengths of the
Jeffersonville and Monticello Turnpike (
Jeffersonville to Briscoe Road),
Ulster and Orange Branch Turnpike (
Liberty to Cross Farm Road),
Philipstown Turnpike (
Pecksville to
Ludingtonville), and
Putnam and Dutchess Turnpike (Ludingtonville to the end in
Carmel). By the 1890s, the entire route that would become Route 52 existed as public or turnpike roads.
Public ownership
After the demise of the turnpikes, the
State Commission of Highways was created by the legislature in 1898 to improve and maintain
state highways. In 1909, a connected network of routes was laid out by the legislature; none of the present Route 52 was included. It was also not part of the system of signed
State Routes numbered in 1924. By 1926, the
Poughkeepsie-
Patterson Route 39 was signed, using a short piece of modern Route 52 between
East Fishkill and
Stormville. The rest of old Route 39 used modern
NY 376 from Poughkeepsie to East Fishkill,
NY 216 from Stormville to
Poughquag,
NY 55 from Poughquag to
West Pawling,
NY 292 from West Pawling to
West Patterson, and
NY 311 from West Patterson to
Patterson.
Formal designation
Route 52 was designated as part of the
1930 renumbering.
[ West of East Fishkill, NY 52 was assigned to its current routing along a previously unnumbered road through downstate New York to the Pennsylvania state line;]
NY 311 junction at Lake Carmel
[Automobile Legal Association (ALA) Automobile Green Book, 1930/31 and 1931/32 editions, (Scarborough Motor Guide Co., Boston, 1930 and 1931). The 1930/31 edition shows New York state routes prior to the 1930 renumbering] At the time, modern NY 52 from Stormville to Pecksville (northwest of Lake Carmel) was designated as part of NY 216.Realignments and detours
The only major change to Route 52's routing since then came with the opening of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge on November 2, 1963. Prior to then, Route 52 had crossed the Hudson River on the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry, approaching from the west on Dupont Avenue and Broadway (overlapping Route 17K on Broadway) and from the east on Fishkill Avenue and Wolcott Avenue (now mostly Route 52 Business).
Natural disasters and construction have forced temporary closures and reroutings in some areas. On December 31, 2002, a rockslide along the stretch climbing the Shawangunks east of Ellenville buried an 85-foot (25 m) section of the road with an estimated 1,000 cubic yards (800 m³) of rock and dirt. The state Department of Transportation closed the road temporarily. Automobile traffic was detoured via several local roads; trucks had to make a lengthy side trip via Route 17[Gardner, Jessica; January 2, 2003; ""; Times-Herald Record; retrieved June 24, 2007.] During the 2003-2005 construction of the new bridge over the Wallkill River in Walden, Route 52 was routed to Walden's other bridge (the "Low Bridge") via Oak Street, which intersects the highway twice within the village. This required the erection of two temporary traffic signals, causing some new traffic problems in the village.[Sausa, Bianca; May 24, 2003; ""; Times-Herald Record; retrieved June 24, 2007.] Truck traffic was detoured to Route 17K via Albany Post Road and Stone Castle Road.Future
The congested eastern end of the NY 208 overlap in Walden.
[This can be verified by traveling to Walden and observing traffic at the intersection during rush hour.]
The layout of the intersection is very poor for trucks making this turn, and the congestion all these factors create has been forcing more drivers to resort to side streets, the village believes, since traffic counts have been going up on 52 and 208 but down on the concurrency. It is hoping to work with the state DOT on marking an alternate route for trucks.[, 4-5, retrieved August 7, 2007.]Anomalies
Parallel roadways in eastern Walden.
The Ellenville split
Eastern end of Ellenville split.
[New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT); October 2004; ; retrieved June 28, 2007.], a 2005 Ulster County Transportation Council map shows both as state highways.[Ulster County Transportation Council; August 25, 2005; ; retrieved June 28, 2007.]
Some of NYSDOT's own documents suggest as well that 52 divides into two two-way routes in Ellenville. An old quadrangle map shows the shield applying to both streets.[NYSDOT; ; retrieved June 28, 2007.] State traffic signal regulations make reference to both Canal and Center being part of Route 52[ (Canal), (Center); both retrieved from loislaw.com June 28, 2007.], and the National Bridge Inventory lists two bridges over Sandburg Creek along Route 52 in the village.[National Bridge Inventory, records 000000002026610 and 000000003346520 retrieved from nationalbridges.com June 28, 2007.]
Since Canal has a stop sign at its western junction with Center, and Center at the eastern fork, 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.Dual roadway in Walden
From the western of the two Tin Brook crossings within the village to the eastern 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 and telephone on it. East of Woodruff Street, the older road functions as a service road for the residents and businesses in that area, mostly on the north side as the south side is a village park. The former right-of-way visibly continues to Highland Avenue although most of it has been revegetated.NY 52A
NY 52A
NY 52 Business
New York State Route 52 Business (abbreviated NY 52 BUS or BUS 52) is a short 4.74 mile[Calculated using trip planning software] long business route of NY 52 through the city of Beacon in Dutchess County, New York. The route is signed as east-west, starting at Interstate 84/NY 52 exit 11 and NY 9D north of Beacon and ending at I-84/NY 52 exit 12 southwest of the village of Fishkill, where NY 52 leaves I-84, ending the I-84/NY 52 concurrency. NY 52 Business is not posted on guide signs on I-84.
NY 52 Business begins at I-84/NY 52 exit 11 and runs concurrent with NY 9D into Beacon. At Main Street, NY 52 Business leaves NY 9D and follows Main east through the Lower Main Street Historic District and then across town to Fishkill Avenue. The route turns left onto Fishkill, following the street as it exits the city. At Prospect Street, a local road straddling the Beacon city line, NY 52 Business becomes unsigned Reference Route 980J.
After Millholland Drive, Fishkill Avenue becomes Main Street once again, this time for Fishkill, before meeting I-84/NY 52. At the interchange, NY 52 Business, as well as the 980J designation, comes to an end while NY 52 continues east along Main Street.Major intersections
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