What is the New York State Thruway?
The Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway, the 641-mile* superhighway crossing New York State, is the largest continuous toll road system in the world. More than 210 million passenger and 28 million commercial vehicles use the Thruway each year. The Thruway’s 426-mile mainline connects New York City and Buffalo, the Empire State’s two largest cities. The Thruway route from New York City to the Pennsylvania line at Ripley is 496 miles long. Other Thruway sections make direct connections with the Connecticut and Massachusetts turnpikes, New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway, and other major expressways that lead to the Midwest and Canada. A majority of New York’s 62 cities, including the nine largest, are located within the Thruway corridor. This corridor represents over 80 percent of the state’s population and registered motor vehicles. In 1991, two other New York routes were added to the Thruway system: the Cross Westchester Expressway (I-287), an 11-mile superhighway that connects the mainline
