New York State Route 73

New York State Route 73 (NY 73) is a state highway located entirely within Essex County, New York, 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 Canadian 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...
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