New York State Route 366 - History

History

In 1908, the New York State Legislature created Route 9, an unsigned legislative route that ran from the Southern Tier to Bouckville via Ithaca and Cortland. Route 9 exited the city of Ithaca on modern NY 366 and followed it east through Varna and Etna to Freeville, from where it continued southeastward toward Dryden on what is now NY 38. When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, the segment of legislative Route 9 between Varna and Etna became part of NY 13. Unlike Route 9 before it, NY 13 exited Ithaca on Forest Home Drive and bypassed Freeville to the south in favor of a direct alignment between Etna and Dryden.

Also assigned at this time was NY 26, a highway that initially extended from Ithaca to Syracuse via Moravia and Skaneateles. NY 26 began in downtown Ithaca and overlapped with NY 13 east to Etna, where it turned northeast to follow old legislative Route 9 to Freeville. Past Freeville, the route continued northward toward Syracuse on modern NY 38. The overlap between NY 13 and NY 26 was eliminated in the late 1920s when NY 26 was truncated to begin at the former east end of the concurrency in Etna. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the NY 26 designation was reassigned to another highway off to the east. The southernmost portion of NY 26's former routing between Etna and Freeville was redesignated as NY 366.

NY 13 was realigned c. 1936 to bypass the Cornell University grounds to the south on State (NY 79) and Mitchell streets and Ithaca and Dryden roads. Its old alignment through the college became NY 392. In the early 1960s, a new expressway was built along the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, bypassing downtown Ithaca to the west and north. NY 13 was altered to follow Meadow Street and the freeway between southwestern Ithaca and the town of Dryden while the portion of NY 13's old routing that did not overlap NY 79 became a westward extension of NY 366.