Interstate 78 | ||||
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Map of New York City with I-78 highlighted in red
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Route information | ||||
Maintained by PANYNJ | ||||
Length: | 0.90 mi (1.45 km) | |||
Existed: | 1978 – present | |||
Major junctions | ||||
West end: | I-78 / Route 139 in Jersey City, NJ | |||
East end: | Canal Street in Lower Manhattan | |||
Highway system | ||||
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Lower Manhattan Expressway | |
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Map of Manhattan with the LOMEX in red
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Route information | |
History: | Proposed in 1941; cancelled in 1962 |
Major junctions | |
West end: | I-78 (Holland Tunnel) at the Hudson River |
East end: | I-78 (Williamsburg Bridge) / I-478 (Manhattan Bridge) at the East River |
Highway system | |
Interstate 78 (I-78) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Union Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, to New York City. The portion of I-78 within the U.S. state of New York is just 0.90 miles (1.45 km) long as it crosses the Hudson River from New Jersey via the Holland Tunnel and ends at the exit rotary in Lower Manhattan. Therefore, the entire route is maintained by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. However, a much longer route was once planned, heading east via the Williamsburg Bridge to the John F. Kennedy International Airport and then north over the Throgs Neck Bridge to I-95 in the Bronx. The parts of this that were built are now New York State Route 878 (NY 878) and I-295.
The Holland Tunnel consists of two one-way two-lane tunnels. The entrance plaza to the westbound tunnel is a rectangular block bounded by Broome, Varick, Watts, and Hudson streets, with four entrances feeding into the tunnel from all directions, including one from Canal Street. The westbound portal is to the north, just south of Dominick Street. The exit plaza is in the square double block that previously housed the New York Central Railroad's St. John's Park Terminal, bounded by Laight, Varick, Beach, and Hudson streets. Traffic leaves the tunnel at a portal at the southeast corner of Canal and Hudson streets, and heads southeast along the south line of Canal Street and south along the west line of Varick Street to the northeast corner of the plaza. Five exits, numbered 1 to 5, can be taken from the almost-circular roadway known as the Holland Tunnel Rotary one to each corner and one to the middle of the east side (Varick Street). A pedestrian overpass crosses the entrance to the plaza and exit 5 at the northeast corner, since the entrance from the tunnel cuts Laight Street.