New York State Route 20SY - History

History

NY 20SY was assigned in the early 1950s as an alternate route of US 20 in the Syracuse area. While US 20 bypassed the city of Syracuse to the south, NY 20SY veered north to serve Downtown Syracuse and the eastern and western suburbs of the city. It was the second alternate route of US 20 near Syracuse; the first, NY 20N, was also a northern alternate route of US 20 but it followed a more southerly routing than NY 20SY. Most of NY 20SY was concurrent to other, pre-existing state highways in the Syracuse area, namely NY 321, NY 5, NY 92, NY 173, and NY 20N. NY 5 was assigned in 1924; NY 92, NY 173, and NY 321 were assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York; and NY 20N was assigned c. 1938.

While most of NY 20SY was concurrent with at least one other state highway, there were two segments where NY 20SY followed an independent routing. One was in the town of Camillus, where NY 20SY followed a previously unnumbered highway between NY 321 and NY 5; the other was southwest of the village of Fayetteville, where NY 20SY used a previously unnumbered highway to bypass the village while NY 92 passed through it.

When NY 20SY was first assigned, it entered downtown Syracuse on NY 5 and followed NY 5 and US 11 through downtown before leaving the area on NY 92. It was realigned by 1954 to follow only NY 5 through downtown. The route left its original alignment at the junction of US 11 and NY 5 in downtown Syracuse and rejoined it at the western terminus of the NY 5 / NY 92 overlap in DeWitt.

Both NY 20N and NY 20SY were removed c. 1962. The independent section of NY 20SY that bypassed Fayetteville became a realignment of NY 92 upon the removal of NY 20SY. The other independent section in Camillus became a realignment of NY 321 in the late 1980s.