Interstate 78 in New York - History

History

When the Interstate numbering was finalized in the late 1950s, the Harrisburg-New York City route, I-78, was assigned to several proposed roads in New York City. It would leave the Holland Tunnel onto the Lower Manhattan Expressway, crossing the East River on the Williamsburg Bridge and following the Bushwick Expressway across Brooklyn to near the John F. Kennedy International Airport. There it would follow the Nassau Expressway along the north boundary of the airport and turn north along the Clearview Expressway through Queens, crossing the East River again on the Throgs Neck Bridge into the Bronx. Finally, I-78 would split into two branches, one heading west along the Cross Bronx Expressway to the Bruckner Interchange and the other heading northwest along the Throgs Neck Expressway to the Bruckner Expressway near the south end of the New England Thruway. Other Interstates junctioned would be I-478 (Manhattan Bridge) in Manhattan, I-278 (Brooklyn–Queens Expressway) in Brooklyn, I-495 (Long Island Expressway) in Queens, and Interstates 95 (Cross Bronx and Bruckner Expressways), 678 (Whitestone Bridge), and 878 (Bruckner Expressway) in the Bronx.

When the Throgs Neck Bridge and approaches opened in early 1961, it was signed as I-78. The lack of expressway names on the signs, as specified by federal standards, caused confusion among drivers who knew the highways by their names. The Clearview Expressway was completed to its present extent in mid-1963, and a short eastbound-only piece of the Nassau Expressway opened in 1971. Other than the preexisting Holland Tunnel and Williamsburg Bridge, no other portions of I-78 were built.