(abbreviated '''I-495''') runs 66.38 miles (106.2 km) entirely within
New York state, from the
Queens-Midtown Tunnel in
New York City to
Riverhead, New York , through the counties of
New York ,
Queens ,
Nassau , and
Suffolk , ending just before the "fish-tail" separation of the North and South Forks of eastern
Long Island . I-495 is better known by New Yorkers as the '''Long Island Expressway''', which is often abbreviated as '''LIE'''.
The LIE was constructed in stages starting in 1939, when the
Queens Midtown Tunnel was built, until 1972, when its Riverhead terminus was finished. Plans have existed to extend the LIE across the
Long Island Sound to either
Guilford, Connecticut or
Rhode Island via a series of existing and man-made islands, but a lack of funding and public opposition have killed these proposals.
From
1994 to
2005 ,
HOV lanes were added to I-495. Beginning with a small section in Western Suffolk County, the lanes were added in subsequent sections until their completion on
June 30 ,
2005 . There is one
HOV lane in each direction, in the median of the highway. They now run from Exit 31
Cross Island Parkway to Exit 64 at
Medford in central Suffolk County.
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 "LIE" is appropriate since, due to the high volume of traffic on the LIE, the term "expressway" is a lie. This volume of traffic has lead to the nickname of "The World's Longest Parking Lot".
66.38 miles
- New York : 66.38 miles
- TOTAL: 66.38 miles
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. However, since I-495 connects to three other interstates (
I-278 ,
I-678 , and
I-295 ), the even first digit is technically correct. A proposed
Orient Point-Watch Hill Bridge would have connected I-495 back to
I-95 in
Rhode Island .
The highway is technically only referred to as the
Long Island Expressway in
Nassau and
Suffolk counties, while in
Queens , it called the Horace Harding Expressway and Queens-Midtown Expressway east of the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway . These names, however, are rarely used by locals, and it is colloquially referred to as the Long Island Expressway throughout its entire run. In Queens, the "proper" names are generally used to refer to the service roads, which are signed Queens Midtown Expressway/Horace Harding Expressway like any other city street.
The LIE has often been termed the "World's Longest Parking Lot" due to its notoriously bad traffic jams; however, that title is now somewhat erroneous. Many Long Island residents admit, thanks in part to recently finished construction of an
HOV Lane stretching from the Queens border to Exit 64, that the LIE tends to move better than the island's east-west
Parkways , the
Northern State Parkway and the
Southern State Parkway .
The oldest tree in the New York metropolitan area, called the "
Queens Giant ," is very close to the Long Island Expressway in northeastern Queens (near the Douglaston Plaza Mall), and is visible while driving westbound. The Queens Giant is also the tallest tree in the New York metro area.
Oscar-winning film director
Alan J. Pakula was killed in a bizarre car accident on the LIE on
November 19 ,
1998 . Pakula lost control of his car after a metal pipe kicked up by a car in front of Pakula's crashed through his windshield and struck him in the head, causing him to lose control of the car and crash it into a fence.
