New York State Route 34

The highway begins at exit 61 of the Southern Tier Expressway, I-86/NY 17, where PA 199 crosses into New York state, and Tioga County, on Cayuta Avenue in Waverly. Little more than half a mile into the state, Cayuta Street (NY 34) comes to a T-intersection with NY 17C. NY 34 makes a sharp left and, shortly thereafter, a sharp right turn. NY 17C was formerly NY 17, and the aforementioned second sharp turn was once NY 34's southern terminus. NY 34 continues north along the east bank of Cayuta Creek across the county line to Van Etten, Chemung County.

In that village, NY 34 turns east at the eastern terminus of NY 224. Less than a mile from NY 224, NY 34 exits Chemung County and reenters Tioga County. NY 34 continues east to Spencer, where it meets up with NY 96. The routes converge from each end of Tioga Street and continue north together on Main Street. After exiting the village, NY 34 and NY 96 continue northward through the county, entering Tompkins County five miles (8 km) from Spencer.

A few miles south of Ithaca, NY 34 and NY 96 merge with Elmira Road near Treman State Park, joining NY 13 northward through Buttermilk Falls State Park to Ithaca. Formerly, Meadow Street carried both directions of NY 13 and NY 34 (and NY 96) through a large part of Ithaca; however, in the late 1990s southbound traffic was diverted to Fulton Street for a ten-block section. NY 96 diverges to the west at West Buffalo Street in this section. NY 34 diverges from the NY 13 freeway in the northern part of the city. In Ithaca, NY 34 passes the Ithaca Farmers Market, the Sciencenter, and Stewart Park.

Between NY 13 and Cayuga Heights Road in the Village of Lansing, NY 34 ascends a hill, offering a view down Cayuga Lake. The highway is close to the lake shore itself for an approximately two mile stretch prior to the hill. Descending the hill, one is offered a view of the city. Easily seen is the West and East Dormitory Towers of Ithaca College, located on NY 96B.

In the town of Lansing, the highway intersects with NY 34B, a loop that serves the small communities along the ridge to the west of NY 34. NY 34 and NY 34B also form a short overlap at this point. Six miles due north of the NY 34/NY 34B intersection, NY 34 passes into Cayuga County.

Like NY 34B to the west, NY 34 serves a handful of small communities in southern and central Cayuga county, including Genoa, at the intersection with NY 90. Five miles south of Auburn in Fleming, NY 34B rejoins NY 34, terminating at a T-intersection.

NY 34 northbound crossing the New York State Thruway in Weedsport

In downtown Auburn, NY 34 is co-signed with NY 38 from the southern edge of the city north to U.S. Route 20 (US 20) and NY 5, where NY 38 turns west. Within downtown Auburn, NY 34 passes by the Harriet Tubman Home and the William Seward House.

From Auburn, NY 34 continues north to Weedsport, where the route meets the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90 or I-90) at exit 40. Farther north, NY 34 enters Cato and meets NY 370 in the village center. Six miles to the north, NY 34 changes counties for the final time, entering Oswego County.

Of the 100 miles (161 km) of NY 34, only four miles of the route exists in Oswego County. NY 34 intersects only six roads in the county, the most notable of which is NY 104, located south of Hannibal.

In 1908, the New York State Legislature created a statewide system of unsigned legislative routes. The portion of what is now NY 34 from Van Etten to Ithaca was included in Route 9, which originally began in Horseheads and went generally northeast across central New York to Bouckville. North of Ithaca, two sections of modern NY 34—from Cayuga Heights Road north to current NY 34B in Lansing and from the north end of NY 34B in Fleming to Auburn—became part of Route 11.[4][5] On March 1, 1921, Route 9 was realigned south of Van Etten to follow modern NY 34 south to Chemung Street in Waverly.[6] When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, none of modern NY 34 received a signed designation except for the current overlap between NY 34 and NY 13 south of Ithaca, which became NY 13 at this time.[7][8]

By 1926, what is now NY 34 from Ithaca north to Cato was designated as part of NY 40, which continued northwest to Red Creek mostly by way of modern NY 370. South of Ithaca, current NY 34 was part of NY 53 from Van Etten to Spencer.[8] Within Ithaca, NY 13 was routed on Spencer Road and Cayuga Street to Court Street, where NY 13 turned east and followed Court Street and University Avenue out of the city. NY 40, meanwhile, began at NY 15 (now NY 96) at the intersection of State and Aurora Streets, one block east of NY 13. NY 40 followed Aurora, Falls, and Lake Streets through the city before joining the current alignment of NY 34 at the southeastern edge of Cayuga Lake.[9]

In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY 40 was reassigned to another highway in the Capital District. Its former alignment became part of two new routes, namely NY 370 west of Cato and NY 34 south of Cato.[10] Unlike NY 40 before it, NY 34 continued south to Chemung Street (then NY 17) in Waverly, utilizing the post-1921 alignment of legislative Route 9 between Ithaca and Waverly.[2][3] NY 34 was extended south to the Pennsylvania state line in the early 1970s following the completion of the Southern Tier Expressway through Waverly.[11][12]

NY 34 at the end in Hannibal with NY 104; CR 34, a former alignment of NY 34, continues north

NY 34 was extended north from Cato to the super two highway carrying NY 104 around Hannibal in May 1970, taking over Cayuga County Route 40 and Oswego County Route 56.[13] Initially, NY 34 veered east on Ira Hill East and North Roads and on Oswego County's County Route 21 (CR 21) to serve Hannibal Center;[11][14] however, it was moved onto its current alignment between Cato and Hannibal by 1977.[15] The portion of NY 34 north of Cato was county-maintained until the early 1980s when the state of New York acquired ownership of the highway as part of two highway maintenance swaps with Oswego and Cayuga counties. The section of NY 34 between the Cayuga County line and NY 104 became state-maintained on April 1, 1980, while the segment between NY 370 and the Oswego County line was turned over to the state on April 1, 1981.[16] The county-maintained continuation of NY 34 to NY 3 in Hannibal is designated and signed as CR 34.[17]

NY 34 has been realigned through Ithaca at least three times since the 1930s. By 1948, NY 34 was shifted westward to follow Albany, Court, and Cayuga Streets through downtown.[18] In the early 1960s, a new expressway was built along the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, bypassing downtown Ithaca on the west and north.[19][20] NY 34 was altered to follow Meadow Street and the freeway between southwestern Ithaca and its original alignment on East Shore Drive north of the city.[21] The portion of NY 34's former alignment on East Shore Drive north of the Ithaca city line became NY 930F, an unsigned reference route.[22] Lastly, in 1996, ten blocks of southbound NY 34 was diverted from Meadow Street to Fulton Street as part of the Octopus elimination project.[23]