Interstate 495 (New York)

The Long Island Expressway (LIE), also signed as Interstate 495, runs 66.38 miles (106.8 km) from the Queens-Midtown Tunnel to Riverhead, New York, through the counties of Queens, Nassau County, New York, and Suffolk, ending just before the "fish-tail" separation of the North and South Forks of eastern Long Island.

Smaller highways continue on from the end of the LIE to Greenport on the North Fork and past the Hamptons to Montauk on the South Fork. Cynics have suggested that the acronym is appropriate, in that the term "expressway" is a lie.

In 1999, an HOV lane was added in each direction from Deer Park to (near) Hicksville. Construction to extend the lane to the border of Queens and Nassau Counties is underway and to be finished by May 2005.

Length

66.38 miles

• New York: 66.38 miles
• TOTAL: 66.38 miles

Major cities along the route

• New York City, New York

Intersections with other interstates

• Interstate 278 in Queens, New York
• I-295 in Queens, New York

Parent route

• Interstate 95

Notes

Originally, I-495 was to stretch from the Queens Midtown Tunnel and I-278 to I-295, the Clearview Expressway. Plans later included creating the Mid-Manhattan Expressway across Manhattan to the Lincoln Tunnel, to connect to I-95 in New Jersey. These plans were eventually cancelled, and the NJ stretch of I-495 was downgraded to a NJ state highway. However, Long Island lobbied to extend I-495 east, upgrading NY 24 to NY 495 and then I-495, to Riverhead where it terminates at NY 25. Since I-495 extends from a city outward, it is technically a spur, which should have an odd first digit. Even first digits are usually assigned to bypasses and beltways. A proposed Orient Point-Watch Hill Bridge would have connected I-495 back to I-95 in Rhode Island.

The oldest tree in the New York metropolitan area, called the Queens Giant, is very close to the Long Island Expressway in Northeastern Queens, New York (near the Douglaston Plaza Mall). If a person knows where to look, he/she can see the Queens Giant in the distance for a few seconds while driving west on the Long Island Expressway in northeastern Queens. The Queens Giant is also the tallest tree in the NY metro area.

External links

• nycroads.com LIE info. (7/04)