New York State Route 73 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 NY 73 highlighted in red, and Reference Route 913Q in blue | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by NYSDOT | ||||
| Length | 27.55 mi[1] (44.34 km) | |||
| Existed | 1930[2]–present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| East end |  US 9 in Elizabethtown | |||
 NY 9N in Keene | ||||
| West end |  NY 86 in Lake Placid | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | New York | |||
| Counties | Essex | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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New York State Route 73 (NY 73) is a 27.55-mile-long (44.34 km) state highway located entirely within Essex County, New York, in the United States. The highway begins at an intersection with NY 86 in the village of Lake Placid and ends at a junction with U.S. Route 9 (US 9) north of the hamlet of Underwood in the extreme southwestern corner of the town of Elizabethtown. NY 73 meanders through a mountainous region of Adirondack Park and passes by several named peaks, including Porter Mountain and Lower Wolfjaw Mountain. Along the way, the route has a short concurrency with NY 9N in the town of Keene.
In the early 19th century, Lake Placid and Keene were connected by the North West Bay Road, an east–west highway linking Hopkinton to Westport. The highway was initially a crude, impassable road; however, it was significantly improved by the state of New York in the mid-1810s. A highway linking Keene to Underwood was constructed by 1846; at Underwood, the road connected to a stagecoach road that went from Albany to the Canada–US border. The latter road became the basis for most of modern US 9.
NY 73 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York from NY 28N in Tahawus to NY 22 in Ticonderoga. The portion of the route from Tahawus to North Hudson followed the Blue Ridge Road; from North Hudson to Schroon, NY 73 overlapped US 9. At the time, modern NY 73 was designated as New York State Route 86A from Lake Placid to Keene. By the following year, the remainder of current NY 73 had become New York State Route 427. NY 73 was cut back to Schroon c. 1936 while NY 427 was replaced by an extended NY 86A c. 1938. In 1952, NY 73 was extended northward to Lake Placid, supplanting NY 86A. The eastern terminus of NY 73 was moved to the vicinity of Underwood on July 1, 1972, and the former routing of NY 73 from Schroon to Ticonderoga became NY 74.