This article is about the current alignment of NY 185. For the former alignment of NY 185 in St. Lawrence County, see New York State Route 185 (1930s–1980).
New York State Route 185
Bridge Road
Map of Crown Point and vicinity with NY 185 highlighted in red
NY 185 was assigned on April 4, 2008, as a signed replacement for New York State Route 910L, an unsigned reference route. It is the third signed designation that Bridge Road has carried, preceded by New York State Route 347 (during the early 1930s) and NY 8 (1930s to the 1960s). NY 185 originally connected to the Champlain Bridge on its east end; however, that structure was closed and demolished in late 2009. Its replacement opened to traffic in November 2011.
Route description
NY 185 begins at an intersection with NY 9N and NY 22 in Crown Point. The route progresses eastward as a two-lane highway named Bridge Road. Heading away from the western terminus, there is a fork in the road: to the left is NY 185, and to the right is a road to a housing development. Most of NY 185 runs along the lowlands around Lake Champlain, making curves at intersections, and heading on relatively flat elevations. As the highway approaches the lake, it makes a curve to the north. There, it intersects with County Route 48 (Lake Road) and begins to follow the lake shore.[3]
The highway passes to the east of the Crown Point State Historic Site and its campground before ascending up the approach to the Lake Champlain Bridge. After making a final curve to the northeast, NY 185 begins to cross Lake Champlain by way of the bridge. The route ends at the Vermont state line at the bridge's midpoint, and the roadway continues into Vermont as VT 17.[3]
NY 8 was truncated south to Haguec. 1968, eliminating a lengthy overlap with NY 22 and NY 9N.[8][9] Its former routing along Bridge Road became NY 903, an unsigned reference route.[10] The NY 903 designation was later replaced with NY 910L when a new numbering system for reference routes was adopted by the New York State Department of Transportation,[11] and NY 910L itself was redesignated and signed as NY 185 on April 4, 2008.[2]
On October 16, 2009, the Champlain Bridge was closed to traffic due to structural concerns.[12] The bridge was demolished on December 28, 2009, as a result of those concerns, temporarily reducing NY 185 in purpose to a spur route linking NY 9N and NY 22 to Crown Point.[13] Its replacement, the Lake Champlain Bridge, opened to traffic on November 7, 2011.[14]