Жаңа Йорк штатының 85-ші бағдарламалық жолының тарихы мен географиясы

State highway in Albany County, New York, US
East of CR 408, NY 85 winds south of Onderdonk Lake, soon crossing a junction with CR 1 (Switzkill Road). Bending northward through Westerlo, NY 85 remains a two lane rural road, soon reaching a junction with the western terminus of NY 143. NY 85 continues northeast from NY 143, becoming more residential as it approaches a junction with CR 14 (Joslyn School Road). Crossing into the town of Berne, NY 85 meets a junction with CR 11 (Cass Hill Road) west of the hamlet of Reidsville. The route then bends northward at this junction, bypassing the hamlet and soon reaching the northern terminus of CR 11 (North Road) nearby. On March 25, 1850, the company was given a 30 year charter; and the road from Lydius Street in Albany (today Madison Avenue) to the hamlet of New Salem—now New Scotland Avenue in the city of Albany and New Scotland Road in Bethlehem and New Scotland—and the portion of the road from Bernville to Gallupville were planked with wooden boards. The plank road/turnpike spurred the development of many places along its path, such as a hotel at what would evolve into the hamlet of Hurstville and a post office at what would become the hamlet of Slingerlands. In 1854 the state authorized the fiscally unsound plank road company to abandon or sell portions of the road and to turn other sections into a turnpike and charge tolls. The section from New Salem east to the hamlet of New Scotland subsequently had its planks removed and the portion from Bernville to Gallupville was also abandoned. In 1881 the charter was renewed for another 30 years. In 1896 the turnpike company opposed the construction of a railroad that would have been in direct competition to the turnpike from Albany to Schoharie.

In 1908, the New York State Legislature created Route 7, an unsigned legislative route extending from Binghamton to Albany via Oneonta and Schoharie. Route 7 entered the town of New Scotland on what is now NY 157 and followed it to its eastern end at modern NY 85. At this point, the route turned onto the old Albany–Schoharie plank road and continued east to Albany on New Scotland Road and New Scotland Avenue. The section of legislative Route 7 east of modern NY 157 was not assigned a posted designation until the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York when it became part of NY 85, which initially extended from NY 81 in the hamlet of Oak Hill in the town of Durham to US 20 in Albany. When it was first assigned, the route followed Makley and Siebert Roads north from Oak Hill to Medusa, then continued northeast to Westerlo on CR 351, CR 402, CR 404, and CR 401. Past Westerlo, NY 85 was routed on what is now NY 143 to the Delaware Turnpike near Reidsville, where it joined its current alignment. Northeast of Slingerlands, NY 85 followed New Scotland Avenue into downtown Albany, where it terminated at US 20. NY 85 was truncated to Rensselaerville c. no – c. 1938. Construction on the Slingerlands Bypass, a new highway bypassing the hamlet of Slingerlands, began in the early 1960s. The first section of the bypass from Washington Avenue to Buckingham Drive (the Krumkill Road exit) was completed by 1964. The remainder of the highway was open by 1968 as a realignment of NY 85. Between Blessing Road and the Albany city line, the bypass was constructed as a two lane highway. This section was originally planned to be four lanes wide as well, but was constructed with only two lanes due to community activism by an anti sprawl group known as the Bethlehem Lincoln Republicans in the early 1960s. The old alignment of NY 85 along New Scotland Road from where NY 85 turns onto the bypass to the Albany city line (a distance of 0.38 mile (1 km) as of 2008) was designated as NY 910E, an unsigned reference route. NY 85 was once proposed to be extended to the unbuilt I 687.