page_title: Interstate 78 in New York
section_title: Route description
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate 78 in New York / Route description
caption_attribution_description: General notes: While this may the correct title from the source, this is actually the exist from the eastbound HOLLAND TUNNEL (bounded by Hudson,Laight,Varick&amp;Erikson in Manhattan]
context_page_description: Interstate 78 is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Union Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, to New York City. In the U.S. state of New York, I-78 extends 0.90 miles. The entirety of I-78 consists of the Holland Tunnel, which crosses under the Hudson River from New Jersey and ends at an exit rotary in Lower Manhattan. The tunnel and its approaches are maintained by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
  I-78 was planned to take a longer route when the Interstate System within New York City was originally proposed in the late 1950s. The proposed route of I-78 was to head 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. One unbuilt section of I-78, the Lower Manhattan Expressway, would have connected the Holland Tunnel to the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges. Another unbuilt section, the Cross-Brooklyn and Bushwick Expressways, would have extended southeast across Brooklyn, connecting to what is now Nassau Expressway.
context_section_description: The section of I-78 within New York is 0.9 miles (1.4 km) long according to the New York State Department of Transportation, although the Federal Highway Administration considers I-78 to be only 0.5 miles (0.80 km) long. It consists exclusively of the Holland Tunnel, which connects to I-78 in New Jersey. The Holland Tunnel, a National Historic Landmark, was the world's longest underwater vehicular tunnel when it opened in 1927; it consists of two tubes, each of which carries two lanes of traffic in a single direction. The entrance plaza to the westbound tunnel, Freeman Plaza, is a rectangular block, bounded clockwise from the north by Broome, Varick, Watts, and Hudson Streets. Four entrances feed into the tunnel from all corners of the block, including an entrance from Canal Street, which intersects Hudson and Watts Streets at the southwest corner of the plaza. The westbound portal is located south of Dominick Street, just north of where the four entrances merge.
  The exit plaza, referred to the "Holland Tunnel Rotary", is in a square superblock that previously housed the New York Central Railroad's St. John's Park Terminal, bounded clockwise from the north by Laight, Varick, Beach, and Hudson Streets. Traffic leaves the tunnel at a portal at the southeast corner of Canal and Hudson Streets, then 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. From there, five exits, which are numbered sequentially, split from the rotary. One exit goes to each corner of the superblock. A fifth exit, added in 2004, splits to Varick Street on the superblock's eastern side. 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.
  There are four auxiliary routes of I-78 in New York; none of these spurs connect with I-78, because parts of I-78, I-278, and I-478 were not built. I-478 is currently the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel and approaches, connecting I-278 in Brooklyn with the Battery in Manhattan. It was once planned to continue north along the unbuilt Westway to I-78 at the Holland Tunnel; however, this project was later canceled. I-278, the only I-78 spur to leave New York, has a western terminus on Linden, New Jersey, and passes northward and eastward through all five boroughs, with its eastern end at the Bruckner Interchange in the Bronx. I-278 was planned to extend northwest to I-78 at Route 24 in Springfield, New Jersey. I-678 runs from the John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens north to the Bruckner Interchange. I-878, signed as part of NY 878, is a short east–west expressway crossing I-678 at the JFK Airport, running only within Queens. It was originally planned as part of I-78, connecting to the Bushwick Expressway, I-278, Williamsburg Bridge, and Lower Manhattan Expressway.  The original I-878 is now the segment of I-278 east of the split with NY 895; it connected I-278 with I-78, I-95, and I-678 at the Bruckner Interchange.
caption: Aerial shot from 1973 of the Holland Tunnel Rotary serving eastbound tube of tunnel; a fifth exit was added in 2004
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