History
The Delaware River corridor had been linked by a road along the cliffs overlooking the river since at least 1851. However, when the plans for a new highway through the corridor were initially drawn up, it was to bypass what became the Hawk's Nest in favor of a shoreline route. However, the Erie Railroad refused to sell the necessary right-of-way, forcing the state to construct the improved road along the cliffside instead.
In 1911, the New York State Legislature created Route 3-a, an unsigned legislative route extending from the Pennsylvania state line at Port Jervis to Route 4 (later NY 17) in Hancock along the Delaware River. Very little of this highway actually existed in reality; by 1920, only 3.69 miles (5.94 km) of the 62.27-mile (100.21 km) long route had been built. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the segment of former Route 3-a from Port Jervis to Callicoon was designated as NY 97, even though two sections of the route—between NY 42 at Sparrow Bush and Mongaup and from Pond Eddy to near the hamlet of Tusten—were still incomplete. The remainder of old Route 3-a north of Callicoon, which was fully constructed by 1930, became part of NY 17B. In 1932, then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation designating NY 97 as the "Upper Delaware Scenic Byway".
On August 30, 1939, the entirety of NY 97 was officially opened to traffic. Several events were held to mark the road's opening, including a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Port Jervis featuring the mayors of Port Jervis and Hancock and a motorcade procession that traveled the length of the highway. In all, it cost $4 million (equivalent to $66.8 million in 2012) to build NY 97. The portion through the Hawk's Nest cost $2 million (equivalent to $33.4 million in 2012) to construct. Following the road's completion, NY 97 was extended north to Hancock, overlapping NY 17B. The overlap was eliminated in the mid-1960s when NY 17B was truncated to Callicoon.
Near Cochecton, a historical marker points out that Route 97 passes the rock claimed by New Jersey colonists as the western end of the colony's northern border during the New York–New Jersey Line War in the 18th century. About a quarter of the route follows the old Delaware and Hudson Canal.
Read more about this topic: New York State Route 97
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