Interstate 78

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Interstate 78 is an interstate highway in the eastern United States. It runs from Bordnersville, Pennsylvania in the west to New York City in the east.

1 Length
2 Major cities
3 Intersections with other Interstates
4 Spur Routes
5 Notes
6 Sources

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Length


Miles	km	state
78	126	Pennsylvania
67.83	109.2	New Jersey
<1	1	New York

145	233	Total

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Major cities

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Intersections with other Interstates

Interstate 81 in Bordnersville, Pennsylvania (near Jonestown, Pennsylvania)
Interstate 287 in Pluckemin, New Jersey (near Bedminster, New Jersey)
Interstate 95 in Newark, New Jersey (Map)

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Spur Routes

	edit Three-digit Interstates from Interstate 78
I-278	New Jersey/New York
I-478	New York
I-678	New York
I-878	New York

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Notes

In New Jersey, I-78 forms the Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike. Between the end of the Turnpike and the Holland Tunnel, I-78 continues for five blocks on 12th and 14th streets of Jersey City, New Jersey. This section of I-78 has traffic lights; I-70 and I-78 are the only two main-line interstate highways with this feature. Originally, I-78 was going to cross Manhattan as the Lower Manhattan Expressway, and continue through Queens and Brooklyn to John F. Kennedy International Airport and then onto The Bronx, but those plans were halted due to a combination of public outcry and cost.

The short section of I-78 in New York City which was actually completed was renamed I-295 in 1971.

As a result of the incompletion of the full plan for I-78, none of its spurs actually intersect it. A 7.2 mile (11.6 km) gap exists in Union County, New Jersey between I-78 and I-278. I-478 is the route number for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which carries traffic to and from Lower Manhattan (it was supposed to continue from there past the Holland Tunnel as the long-abandoned Westway project). At 0.72 miles (1.2 km), I-878 is the shortest three-digit interstate in existence; it is unsigned, though there are signs for New York State Route 878. (I-375 in Michigan or I-395 in Maryland is the shortest signed three-digit interstate.)

These gaps were joined throughout much of the 1970s and '80s by the section between the Drift Road exit in Watchung, New Jersey and the NJ 24 junction in Springfield. The highway at that point crosses the Watchung Reservation, a popular Union County Park, and lawsuits halted construction for years while a suitable route could be found. Only short stubs existed past either exit, although the very high Plainfield Avenue overpasses were among them and their potential as a dangerous attractive nuisance was one factor in completing the highway.

Ultimately, in order to permit construction in the reservation, extra land was added to the Cataract Hollow Road overpass and a separate land bridge was built to allow for animal migration. These land bridges were later scorned by local communities for the amount of deer (and the resulting damage to flora on private property) that moved into the neighboring towns of Summit, New Providence, and Berkeley Heights. The road was also designed to use a narrower right-of-way with no median strip and just a concrete barricade dividing the highway. It was completed and opened to traffic in the early 1990s.

I-278 goes through all of New York's five boroughs — crossing Manhattan only via the Triborough Bridge.

I-678 carries motorists from the Bronx to Queens along the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge and into the John F. Kennedy Airport.

A short stretch of I-78 in New Jersey near the Pennsylvania border features an automatic deicing spray.

I-378 was a spur off the original alignment of I-78, which ran along US 22 north of Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. However, a new I-78 was built south of the cities, and I-378 was downgraded to a similar-numbered state route.

In the future, I-78 may continue along U.S. Highway 22 from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and ultimately, to Interstate 77, and maybe even Interstate 70. If it ever happens, it would form a corridor between New York City, New York and Columbus, Ohio.

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Sources

2005 Rand McNally Road Atlas
NJDOT Straight Line Diagrams

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