The Palisades Interstate Parkway, officially known (but not signed) as New Jersey State Highway 445 and New York State Reference Route 987C is a four-lane, 42 mile (68 kilometre) long, wooded highway, generally built to freeway standards, extending from Fort Lee, New Jersey (at the George Washington Bridge, which is I-95/US 1/US 9/US 46) to a traffic circle with US 9W and US 202 at Fort Montgomery, New York. Construction on the Parkway was completed in 1958. The Parkway is named after the Palisades, a line of basaltic diorite and red sandstone cliffs rising along the western side of the Hudson River.
A spur, officially (but not signed as) New Jersey State Highway 445S, splits from the main road near the south end and provides local access, ending at US 9W and NJ 67. Southbound, just beyond the split, is a local exit to NJ 505; traffic that stays on past that point must use the George Washington Bridge. NJ 445S is the original alignment of the PIP; what is now the main route was built later.
The Parkway is a major commuter route into New York City from upstate, though historically its primary role was to provide access to seventeen state parks and five historic sites of the Palisades Interstate Park region.
As with most New York parkways, commercial traffic is prohibited from using the PIP. An exception is the northernmost two miles of the road, which are concurrent with US 6, the Grand Army Highway.
In the 1920s, the parkway system around New York City grew extensively under the direction of master builder Robert Moses, who saw parkways as a active means to promote automobile use and to transfer population from crowded urban areas onto undeveloped areas on Long Island.
In the 1930s, the concept of the parkway was extended to the federal government, which constructed several national parkways designed for recreational driving and to commemorate historic routes.
A recurring bit of humor about the name parkway has had some fun poked at it, as it is ironic that one would park on a driveway, and instead drive on a parkway.
The PalisadesInterstateParkway is exceptionally significant in the themes of conservation, recreation, transportation and regional planning for its role in the conservation of a significant endangered landscape, the development and promotion of recreation, and regional land use planning.
Beginning in 1900 with the formation of the PalisadesInterstate Park Commission (PIPC), the states of New York and New Jersey commenced a cooperative effort to acquire and preserve a large tract of the Palisades that was threatened by quarrying operations.
The parkway is defined by restricted access, the elimination of cross traffic, a broad landscaped right-of-way, fully separated driving lanes at different elevations, generously banked curves, crisp sunken roadways defined by mountable curbs, contrasting tones and pavement and curbs, and connections to scenic and recreational attractions, both on the parkway and in the adjacent parkland.
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