Interstate 78

Interstate 78 is an interstate highway in the eastern United States. It runs from Bordnersville, Pennsylvania in the west to New York City in the east.

Contents

1 Length 2 Major Cities Along the Route 3 Intersections with other Interstates 4 Spur Routes 5 Notes 6 Sources

Length

Miles	km	state
78	126	Pennsylvania
67.83	109.2	New Jersey
<1	1	New York
145	233	Total

Major Cities Along the Route

• Allentown, Pennsylvania
• Newark, New Jersey
• New York City, New York

Intersections with other Interstates

• Interstate 81 in Bordnersville, Pennsylvania
• Interstate 287 in New Jersey
• Interstate 95 in Newark, New Jersey

Spur Routes

• New York City, New York - I-278, I-478, I-678, I-878

Notes

• In New Jersey, I-78 forms the Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike. Between the end of the Turnpike and the Holland Tunnel, I-78 continues for five blocks on 12th and 14th streets of Jersey City, New Jersey. This section of I-78 has traffic lights; I-70 and I-78 are the only two main-line interstate highways with this feature. Originally, I-78 was going to cross Manhattan as the Lower Manhattan Expressway, and continue through Queens and Brooklyn to John F. Kennedy International Airport, but those plans were halted due to a combination of public outcry and cost.

• As a result of the incompletion of the full plan for I-78, none of its spurs actually intersect it. A 7.2 mile (11.6 km) gap exists in Union County, New Jersey between I-78 and I-278. I-478 is the route number for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which carries traffic to and from Lower Manhattan (it was supposed to continue from there past the Holland Tunnel as the long-abandoned Westway project ). At 0.72 miles (1.2 km), I-878 is the shortest three-digit interstate in existence; it is unsigned, though there are signs for New York State Route 878. (I-375 in Michigan or I-395 in Maryland is the shortest signed three-digit interstate.)

• I-278 goes through all of New York's five boroughs--only entering Manhattan via the Triborough Bridge.

• I-678 carries motorists from the Bronx to Queens along the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge and into the John F. Kennedy Airport.

• I-378 was a spur off the original alignment of I-78, which ran along US 22 north of Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. However, a new I-78 was built south of the cities, and I-378 was downgraded to a similar-numbered state route.

• In the future, I-78 may continue along U.S. Highway 22 from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and ultimately, to Interstate 77, and maybe even Interstate 70. If it ever happens, it would form a corridor between New York City, New York and Columbus, Ohio.

• In the opening of all episodes of the popular HBO series The Sopranos, Tony Soprano is shown driving his car through a toll-booth on I-78 onto the New Jersey Turnpike.

Sources

• 2005 Rand McNally Road Atlas
• NJDOT Straight Line Diagrams