Many of the state's major east–west roads intersect with, and often join, NY 22 just before crossing into the neighboring New England states, where U.S. Route 7 (US 7), which originally partially followed NY 22's alignment, similarly parallels the New York state line.

Almost all of NY 22 is a two-lane rural road through small villages and hamlets. The exceptions are its southern end in the heavily populated Bronx and lower Westchester County, and a section that runs through the city of Plattsburgh near the northern end. The rural landscape that the road passes through varies from horse country and views of the reservoirs of the New York City watershed in the northern suburbs of the city, to dairy farms further upstate in the Taconic and Berkshire mountains, to the undeveloped, heavily forested Adirondack Park along the shores of Lake Champlain. An section from Fort Ann to Keeseville is part of the All-American Road known as the Lakes to Locks Passage.

The oldest portions of today's NY 22, in Westchester County and along the Lake Champlain shoreline, were Native American trails. Dutch, and after them English, settlers continued to use the road to get their farm products to market, with the southernmost portion eventually becoming the White Plains Post Road in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the early 20th century, as automobile use became widespread, the state paved the more heavily used sections and built new roads to create the current highway, first designated as NY 22 in 1930. In its early years the highway began in Manhattan; until 2008 its northern end was the Canadian border.

Route description

NY 22 starts as an urban surface road, passing through the most populous communities along its route within its first . After running northerly from its origin in the Bronx it veers slightly to the northeast in the vicinity of a traffic circle near Kensico Dam before heading northward for good as a mostly two-lane rural route all the way to the state's North Country.

The majority of NY 22's routing is maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT); however, several sections are maintained by other jurisdictions. The southernmost of these is in the Bronx, where the entirety of the highway within the borough is maintained by the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT). In Westchester County, NY 22 is mostly locally maintained within the city of Mount Vernon and is county-maintained within the city of White Plains. In Clinton County, the route is locally maintained within the city of Plattsburgh.

During its course, NY 22 intersects or runs concurrently with 46 other designated routes: one state parkway, five Interstate Highways, and seven U.S. Highways not counting its own termini. Of the surface road intersections, 18 terminate at NY 22 and 15 are concurrencies shared with the crossing routes, accounting for , or 21.5% of the highway's total length.

The Bronx to Kensico Dam

right|thumb|NY 22 northbound in Mount Vernon, just north of the East 233rd Street intersection in the Bronx|alt=A sign with the number "22" in black on a white shield, itself on a black background, on a slightly skewed metal post stands at front right. Across a road are some low multistory urban buildings

NY 22 starts as Provost Avenue at U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in the Eastchester section of the Bronx, intersecting with East 233rd Street about to the north. It soon crosses the Westchester county line into Mount Vernon and becomes South Third Avenue, beginning a section in that county. For the first time, NY 22 runs parallel to New York's eastern border, intersecting I-684 for the first of several times just north of the short portion of that highway in Connecticut. A short distance later, NY 22 becomes a two-lane surface road, and NY 433, one of the state's shortest highways, heads south from NY 22 into Greenwich.

After intersecting with NY 199 at its eastern end, NY 22 and US 44 veer northeast into the small village of Millerton in the northern protrusion of Dutchess County's Oblong, an area once the subject of a boundary dispute between New York and Connecticut in the late 17th century. US 44 continues eastward towards Lakeville, Connecticut, only a mile (1.6 km) east at this point, while NY 22 resumes its northward course into the shadow of the ridge ahead, where Brace Mountain, Dutchess County's highest peak, dominates the view. At another gentle curve, NY 22 slips into Columbia County and the town of Ancram. east–west state highway not to overlap with NY 22, intersects at a traffic light just east of downtown. At Green River, NY 71, the state's shortest two-digit route, begins it short eastward course into Massachusetts. NY 22 then crosses into Austerlitz, where the surrounding terrain becomes much more wooded and the valleys become narrower. In the center of town, the historic hamlet of Old Austerlitz, East Hill Road offers a short detour to Steepletop, the farm where Edna St. Vincent Millay lived, another National Historic Landmark. A short distance later, NY 22 intersects with NY 203 at its eastern end. overlaps with its longest north–south route (NY 22) for a mile before the former continues to Pittsfield and the latter returns to the border-paralleling course, which takes it into Rensselaer County. Almost immediately after the joined roads cross the line, NY 67 splits off to the west, crossing the Hoosick back into Rensselaer County, while NY 22 straightens out again to go due north. After , it reaches Cambridge, where NY 313 forks off to the east. In the middle of town, NY 372, a local connector to Greenwich, ends. Within the park, NY 22 mainly follows the lakeshore, closer to some of its more populated areas.

right|thumb|Northern terminus of NY 22 at US 11 in Mooers

NY 22 runs along South Catherine Street for a few blocks, then divides into one-way couplets for the first time since Westchester County, with northbound traffic moving a block to the east to follow Oak Street, while southbound traffic comes down North Catherine Street. It parallels US 9 for a couple of blocks, intersecting NY 3 (Cornelia Street) just a block west of its eastern terminus at that highway. After Boynton Avenue, the separate streets reunite and turns northwest just before it has its second and final exit with the Northway. Just after the exit, NY 374 begins along the westbound route as NY 22 turns to the north once again.

NY 22 continues past Sciota in a fairly straight north-northwesterly course through more woods with small home and farm clearings. Those yield to mostly fields just before the Great Chazy River, after which NY 22 enters the hamlet of Mooers. NY 22 comes to an end upon intersecting US 11.

Old roads

The road from the modern-day Bronx (then part of Westchester County) through White Plains to Bedford and points north was originally an old Native American path. This path was later used and widened by the first European settlers. During colonial times, the road was known as "the road to Bedford and Vermont". The old road was also used heavily during the American Revolution to transport iron south from the mines in the Adirondacks. A new bridge over the Harlem River (the original Harlem Bridge) was opened in 1797, shortening the route out of Manhattan. This also relocated the Boston and White Plains Post roads to a new alignment along Third Avenue and Boston Road. The White Plains Post Road separated from the Boston Post Road in Bronxdale, with the road to Boston heading east and the road to White Plains heading north. The old White Plains Post Road roughly followed the alignment of modern-day White Plains Road, which was laid out in 1863.

The stretch from Salem to the Vermont border in Granville was part of the old Northern Turnpike, which began in Lansingburgh and went along modern-day NY 40. The Northern Turnpike was chartered on April 1, 1799.

Public ownership

right|thumb|A picture of State Road in Patterson, which would later become part of 22|alt=A black and white illustration of an unpaved highway flanked on both sides by fence and trees proceeds through mostly open land. A caption at the bottom reads "Picture of State Road, Patterson, N.Y."

In 1868, the New York State Legislature formed a commission "to regulate, grade, widen, gravel, and improve the old White Plains Post Road", which was amended in 1870 to "macadamize the road" between Mount Vernon and White Plains. The post road south of Mount Vernon, which was part of New York City, was later widened between 1902 and 1908. although these initial designations were not publicly signed. Portions of modern NY 22 were defined as part of legislative routes 1 and 22. Legislative route 1 went from the New York City line north along the White Plains Post Road to White Plains, then detoured to Harrison (via Westchester Avenue), before proceeding north to Armonk (via modern NY 120). Legislative route 1 continued north along modern NY 22 to Austerlitz, where it then turned northwest to Valatie (via modern NY 203 and NY 980B), then followed US 9 to Albany. Legislative route 22 had two segments. The southern segment began in Troy, following NY 7 to Hoosick, then went north along modern NY 22 up to Putnam Station (south of Ticonderoga).

NY 22 designation

thumb|upright=0.5|right|Original NY 22 shield, adopted in 1927|alt=A sign with the number 22 on it, similar to the one at the top of the article and in other pictures but with an additional black border, the letters "NY" above the numbers, and a different typeface for the numbers themselves

In 1924, New York signed several major state roads with route numbers. Most of Legislative Route 1 was designated as NY 22, but with a direct route between White Plains and Armonk. Also, instead of continuing to Valatie, NY 22 initially ended at the NY 23 intersection in Hillsdale. By 1929, the road to Valatie had been improved and NY 22 was extended to US 9, with a length of . The middle section of modern NY 22 was designated in 1924 as NY 24, running for from Stephentown to Comstock. The portion of modern NY 22 north of Whitehall remained unnumbered in 1924 but the next year NY 30, a route assigned in 1924 that linked Mechanicville to Whitehall, was extended north from Whitehall to the Canadian border north of Mooers. In the 1930 renumbering, the NY 24 and NY 30 designations were both reassigned elsewhere. NY 22 was then extended north along their former routes, incorporating newly improved roads between Austerlitz and Stephentown, creating the route that existed until 2008. By 1941, the alignment within Mount Vernon was shifted east to use Columbus Avenue and South 3rd Avenue (current NY 22), continuing its route to New York City via East 233rd Street as before. On January 1, 1970, the NY 22 designation was removed from Manhattan and most of the Bronx, and the short piece remaining in the city was realigned to meet US 1 at NY 22's current southern terminus.

U.S. Route 7

In the original plan for the U.S. Highway System, as approved by the Bureau of Public Roads in November 1926, US 7 was defined as beginning in New York City and designated on the alignment of NY 22 to Amenia, where it shifted northeast into Sharon, Connecticut, to use old New England Route 4 through Massachusetts and Vermont all the way to the Canadian border. Apparently New York did not approve this plan, and by mid-1927 the official route log published by the American Association of State Highway Officials had relocated the southern end of US 7 to Norwalk, Connecticut.

NY 9N concurrency

In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the stretch from Ticonderoga to Keeseville now concurrent with NY 9N was designated solely as NY 22. The north end of NY 47 was also located at an intersection with NY 22 in Ticonderoga. At Westport, NY 22 connected to NY 195, an east–west highway leading to Elizabethtown. At the time, Route 9N only extended from there to Keeseville.

NY 8 originally extended eastward from Hague to a ferry across Lake Champlain at Putnam when it was assigned as part of the renumbering. In between the two locations, the route utilized modern NY 9N, Montcalm Street, NY 22, and Wrights Ferry and Wrights roads. It was realigned in the early 1930s to continue east from Ticonderoga on what is now NY 74 to another ferry across the lake. NY 8 was altered again to follow NY 22 north from Ticonderoga to Crown Point, where it turned off the highway onto Bridge Road (now NY 185). Route 8 remained intact along this routing until , when Route 8 was truncated southwestward to NY 9N at Hague.

Realignments

right|thumb|Dutchess CR 81, a realigned section of NY 22|alt=A rural, narrow two-lane highway passes through an area composed of trees, fields, and small brush. There is a snow berm at the side, and a pentagonal orange-on-blue sign with the number 81 at right.

Over the course of many years, several sections of NY 22 were straightened, realigned to new roads, or both. Some old alignments are still either county-maintained or state-maintained. Several of these are in Dutchess County. In Dover Plains, the southern leg of NY 22's junction with NY 343 is maintained by the state as NY 980G, a reference route. To the north in the town of Amenia, a loop off NY 22 between Wassaic and Amenia is designated as CR 81. Another former routing of NY 22 in the town of Dover exists as CR 6, a loop route between the hamlets of Wingdale and Dover Plains that runs along the west bank of the Ten Mile River.

Before the construction of I-684, NY 22 continued northeast along Sodom Road north of Brewster on what is now CR 50, a dead-end road maintained by Putnam County. Modern NY 22 joins the I-684 roadway at exit 10 (the northern terminus of I-684) and connects to the surface road on the opposite side of the Croton River via the NY 981B connector. South of Copake Falls, the state also still maintains an old alignment designated as NY 980F. North of Copake Falls, the northern half of the original alignment was designated as an extension of NY 344.

Mooers area

The segment of NY 22 north of US 11, named Hemmingford Road, was state-maintained until 1988, when ownership and maintenance of that part of the route was transferred to Clinton County as part of a highway maintenance swap between the county and the state of New York. Following the swap, it was co-designated as CR 34 by Clinton County. The official alignment of NY 22 was not changed, however, as the New York State Department of Transportation still considered the Canadian border to be NY 22's northern terminus The route was assigned in the early 1940s.

  • NY 22B () is a bypass around the southern and western extents of Plattsburgh. NY 22B begins at NY 22 in Peru and continues north through Schuyler Falls to Morrisonville, where it terminates at NY 3 near Clinton County Airport.