Interstate 81

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Interstate 81 (abbreviated I-81) is an interstate highway in the eastern part of the United States. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 40 near Dandridge, Tennessee; its northern terminus is on Wellesley Island (near Fishers Landing, New York) at the Canadian border where the Thousand Islands Bridge connects it to Ontario Highway 401, the main freeway leading from Windsor-Detroit and Toronto to Montréal.

Contents 1 Distances by state 2 Major cities along the route 3 Intersections with other Interstates 4 Spur routes 4.1 Current 4.2 Past 5 Notes 6 See also 7 External links

Distances by state

Miles	km	state
75	121	Tennessee
323	520	Virginia
23	37	West Virginia
11	18	Maryland
234	377	Pennsylvania
158	254	New York
824	1326	Total

Major cities along the route

• Bristol, Virginia
• Roanoke, Virginia
• Harrisonburg, Virginia
• Winchester, Virginia
• Martinsburg, West Virginia
• Hagerstown, Maryland
• Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
• Scranton, Pennsylvania
• Binghamton, New York
• Syracuse, New York
• Watertown, New York

Intersections with other Interstates

• Interstate 40 near Dandridge, Tennessee, northeast of Knoxville
• Interstate 26 between the Tri-Cities, Tennessee
• Interstate 77 in Wytheville, Virginia. They stay joined for about 10 miles (16 km), and go in opposite directions.
• Interstate 64 in Lexington, Virginia. They stay joined until Staunton, Virginia.
• Interstate 66 in Middletown, Virginia
• Interstate 70 in Hagerstown, Maryland
• Interstate 76 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
• Interstate 83 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Interstate 78 in Bordnersville, Pennsylvania (near Jonestown, Pennsylvania)
• Interstate 80 in St. Johns, Pennsylvania (near Hazleton, Pennsylvania)
• Interstate 84 and Interstate 380 in Scranton, Pennsylvania
• Interstate 476 in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania and in Pittston, Pennsylvania
• Interstate 88 and future Interstate 86 in Binghamton, New York
• Interstate 690 in downtown Syracuse, New York
• Interstate 90 in North Syracuse, New York

Spur routes

There are three current child routes either providing access to, or bypassing, various cities along Interstate 81's route.

Current

• I-381 - Bristol, Virginia
• I-581 - Roanoke, Virginia
• I-481 - Syracuse, New York

Past

• I-181 - Kingsport, Tennessee: Deleted in August, 2005 when Interstate 26 took over I-181's entire length.

	edit Three-digit Interstates from Interstate 81
I-381	Virginia
I-481	New York
I-581	Virginia
past/future	I-181: Tennessee

Notes

This road was originally a "line on a map" Interstate. For many years, it existed more to provide a path through the Appalachians than to relieve congestion on any specific route.

However, I-81 has become a major route for interstate truck transportation in recent years. Trucking companies that have tired of fighting big-city congestion along Interstate 95 are now opting to use this less congested inland route. Virginia has proposed to widen its entire portion of I-81 to a minimum of three or four lanes in each direction to accommodate increased truck traffic and to convert the highway into a toll road. Some sections of the new Virginia I-81 may completely separate car and truck traffic. For more comprehensive information on Virginia's plans for the I-81 corridor, see [1].

I-81 runs together with Interstate 77 in Wytheville, Virginia for about 10 miles (16 km), but the two go in opposite directions, creating a wrong-way multiplex. Motorists traveling northbound on I-81 are also traveling southbound on I-77, though they are actually going east. Likewise, motorists traveling southbound on I-81 are also traveling northbound on I-77, though they are actually going west.

There was an eastern branch, called I-81E, that was a spur from Scranton to Pocono in Pennsylvania. That highway is now I-380.

I-481 around Syracuse, New York was planned as I-281, and the first portion of the bypass to be completed was briefly signed as I-281. However, the route number was changed to avoid confusion with nearby NY 281.

Around I-81's northern terminus at the Canadian border, two toll bridges over the St. Lawrence River connect it to unsigned Ontario Highway 137, a short link to the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway (ON Provincial Route 401) in Ontario. The bridges are on opposite sides of the border (southern bridge is I-81, northern bridge is ON 137). The southern bridge is one of the few remaining 2-lane interstate stretches left on the system. The border itself is marked by a 90-foot bridge across International Rift between Wellesley Island, New York and Hill Island, Ontario. Not too far to the east lies Highway 416 leading into Ottawa.

I-81 parallels US 11 for most of its path.

See also

Interstate Highways in West Virginia

External links

• Thousand Islands Bridge System, showing the bridges and connections at the northern terminus
• I-18.org, I-81 Corridor in Virginia by VDOT

edit Primary Interstate Highways
4	5	8	10	12	15	16	17
19	20	22	24	25	26	27	29
30	35	37	39	40	43	44	45
49	55	57	59	64	65	66	68
69	70	71	72	73	74	75	76 (W)
76 (E)	77	78	79	80	81	82	83
84 (W)	84 (E)	85	86 (W)	86 (E)	87	88 (W)	88 (E)
89	90	91	93	94	95	96	97
99	238	H-1	H-2	H-3
Unsigned Interstate Highways
A-1	A-2	A-3	A-4	PRI-1	PRI-2	PRI-3
Lists Two-digit Interstates - Three-digit Interstates Gaps in Interstates - Intrastate Interstates Interstate standards - Proposed Interstates