Interstate 81
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| Interstate 81 Main route of the Interstate Highway System |
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| Length: | 846 mi (1361 km) |
|---|---|
| South end: |  I-40 in
Dandridge, TN |
| Major junctions: |
 I-26 near
Kingsport, TN I-64 in
Lexington, VA I-70 in
Hagerstown, MD   I-84
near Scranton, PA I-88
near Binghamton, NY 
I-90 in Syracuse, NY |
| North end: |  Ont
137 at Thousand Islands Bridge in Wellesley Island, NY/ON(TO   Ont
401) |
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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 Highway 401, the main freeway leading from Windsor-Detroit and Toronto
to
Interstate 81 largely traces the path of the Appalachian Mountains, often paralleling its older U.S. highway counterpart, U.S. Route 11. While mostly rural, it is heavily used as a trucking corridor, often as a bypass of the more urban Interstate 95 to the east.
Route description
| Lengths | ||
|---|---|---|
| mi | km | |
| TN | 75 | 121 |
| VA | 323 | 520 |
| WV | 23 | 37 |
| MD | 11 | 18 |
| PA | 234 | 377 |
| NY | 183 | 294 |
Tennessee and Virginia
Interstate 81 begins in Tennessee at Interstate 40 near Dandridge. The route parallels the Appalachian Mountains for much of its route through Tennessee and Virginia, serving such cities as Roanoke, Lexington, and Winchester. It parallels its older counterpart, U.S. Route 11, for its entire length in Virginia.
West Virginia and Maryland
- Main articles: Interstate 81 in: West Virginia | Maryland
Interstate 81 briefly enters the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, serving the city of Martinsburg. It then traverses the state of Maryland at one of its narrowest points, passing through the "Hub City" of Hagerstown where it intersects with a large number of other routes.
Pennsylvania
Interstate 81 forms a major north-south corridor through the state of Pennsylvania, serving the boroughs of Chambersburg and Carlisle, where it meets the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Around the state capital of Harrisburg, the route forms the northeastern section of Pennsylvania's Capital Beltway. The route then travels northeast towards the Wyoming Valley, where it serves the cities of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, then heads north through the Endless Mountains region towards the state line.
New York
Interstate 81 enters the state of New York near Binghamton. It parallels U.S. Route 11 in a north-south direction, serving the cities of Syracuse, where it meets the New York State Thruway, and Watertown. The route ends at the Canada border at the Thousand Islands Bridge, where it crosses the Saint Lawrence River to become Highway 137.
Major intersections
- 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 (i.e., this is a wrong-way concurrency, where northbound 81 overlaps southbound I-77 and vice versa in the opposite direction).
- Interstate 64 in Lexington, Virginia. They stay joined until Staunton, Virginia.
- Interstate 66 in Middletown, Virginia
- Interstate 70 in Hagerstown, Maryland
- Interstate 76 in Middlesex, Pennsylvania (near Carlisle, Pennsylvania)
- Interstate 83 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
- Interstate 78 in Bordnersville, Pennsylvania (near Jonestown, Pennsylvania)
- Interstate 80 in Saint Johns, Pennsylvania (near Hazleton, Pennsylvania)
- Interstate 476 in Dupont, Pennsylvania (near Pittston, Pennsylvania)
- Interstate 84 and Interstate 380 in Dunmore, Pennsylvania (near Scranton, Pennsylvania) Throop Dunmore Interchange
- Interstate 476 (again) in Clarks Summit, 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
Auxiliary routes
There are three current child routes either providing access to, or bypassing, various cities along Interstate 81's route.
Current
Past
- I-181 - Kingsport, Tennessee: Deleted in August, 2005 when Interstate 26 took over I-181's entire length.
- I-81E - Current Interstate 380 (Pennsylvania)
External links
- Thousand Islands Bridge System, showing the bridges and connections at the northern terminus
| Main Interstate Highways (multiples of 5 in pink) |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | A-1 | A-2 | A-3 | A-4 | PRI-1 | PRI-2 | PRI-3 | ||||||||||||
| Lists | Primary | Main - Intrastate - Suffixed - Future - Gaps | |||||||||||||||||
| Auxiliary | Main - Future - Unsigned | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other | Standards - Business - Bypassed | ||||||||||||||||||
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