New York State Route 18F - History

History

All of what is now NY 18F south of Youngstown was originally designated as part of NY 34 in 1924. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY 34 became part of NY 18, which was extended north to Youngstown and east to Rochester as part of the renumbering. NY 18 was originally state-maintained from the village of Lewiston to Youngstown; however, the state of New York relinquished ownership and maintenance of NY 18 between Center Street in Lewiston and the village of Youngstown on July 24, 1947. The section within the village of Lewiston was transferred to village control, while the remainder of the route was given to Niagara County. In December 1947, Lewiston petitioned the county to also assume maintenance of the portion of NY 18 within the village; the request was eventually granted.

On January 1, 1949, NY 18 was realigned to follow a more inland routing between the village of Lewiston and what is now Four Mile Creek State Park. The former riverside and lakeside routing of NY 18 between the two locations was redesignated as NY 18F. At the time, NY 18F was one of five spur routes of NY 18, which at the time extended southward to the Pennsylvania state line. NY 18A, NY 18B, and NY 18D were assigned to spurs of NY 18 south of Lewiston, while NY 18E was assigned to a spur of NY 18 in the village of Lewiston that connected the village to the second Queenston–Lewiston Bridge. When NY 18 was truncated to Lewiston c. 1962, NY 18A, NY 18B, and NY 18D were either renumbered or absorbed by pre-existing routes. NY 18E also ceased to exist around this time as the Queenston–Lewiston Bridge was removed and replaced with the modern Lewiston–Queenston Bridge just upstream.