MarketRidge Road (Western New York)
Company Profile

Ridge Road (Western New York)

Ridge Road is a 121.5-mile (195.5 km) east–west road that traverses four counties in Upstate New York in the United States. The road begins adjacent to the Niagara River at an intersection with Water Street in the village of Lewiston, Niagara County, and passes through several towns, villages, and the city of Rochester before arriving at its eastern terminus at a junction with New York State Route 370 (NY 370) southwest of Red Creek, Wayne County. It is named for the rise atop which the road was built, a mound of sand and gravel that was formed when it was the shoreline of ancient Glacial Lake Iroquois. The ridge is often confused with the nearby Niagara Escarpment, which is much taller, geologic in origin, and lies a few miles to the south.

Route description
Lewiston to Rochester The right-of-way of Ridge Road begins on the eastern bank of the Niagara River at the intersection of Center and Water streets in the village of Lewiston. Following Center Street east, the right-of-way meets NY 18F (at this point maintained by Niagara County as the unsigned County Route 907 or CR 907) four blocks later at 4th Street. Here, Center Street changes from a village street to a state-maintained highway as NY 18F joins Center Street east through the village to an interchange with the Robert Moses State Parkway and NY 104 in the shadow of the Niagara Escarpment. NY 18F and the Center Street name both end here, giving way to NY 104 and the Ridge Road moniker. East of this location, Ridge Road and NY 104 parallel the east–west running escarpment to its south as both entities head across western New York. Most of Ridge Road between Lewiston and the city of Rochester to the east passes through rural, outlying areas of Niagara, Orleans, and western Monroe counties. While NY 31, a parallel highway to the south, passes through most of the region's largest communities—including the city of Lockport and the villages of Medina, Albion, and Brockport—Ridge Road and NY 104 bypass them entirely. Instead, the two-lane road passes through only small hamlets built up around junctions between NY 104 and other state routes. as it serves as the backbone of a large commercial district in the town of Greece. Once in Rochester, West Ridge Road enters areas more residential and industrial in nature, including the sprawling Eastman Business Park near the Genesee River. Rochester area At the Genesee River, NY 104 and West Ridge Road cross the Veterans Memorial Bridge and become an expressway on the east bank of the river. Ridge Road, however, continues to the north of NY 104 as East Ridge Road, which parallels the Keeler Street Expressway as both travel through the area. The latter begins at St. Paul Street a short distance south of Seneca Park Zoo and heads eastward as a city-maintained street, carrying NY 104 Truck through a residential section of the city. East Ridge Road crosses into the town of Irondequoit just east of Seneca Avenue, at which point it becomes county-maintained as CR 241. NY 104 Truck leaves to the south at Hudson Avenue, the first major intersection East Ridge Road has in Irondequoit. Like in Greece, the Irondequoit portion of Ridge Road is lined with businesses ranging from big-box stores to small establishments. The road's status as an anchor for the town's economy is supported by the presence of a Wal-Mart supercenter on Hudson Avenue between NY 104 and East Ridge Road and Skyview on the Ridge, formerly known as both the Irondequoit Mall and Medley Center, located on East Ridge Road between North Goodman Street and Culver Road. Past Culver Road, the look along the four-lane East Ridge Road changes slightly as it gains a median while the surrounding neighborhood begins to shift from commercial to residential—a change ushered in by the presence of Eastridge High School. The divided highway, as well as CR 241, NY 404 takes on the Ridge Road name and heads east through the village of Webster to an intersection west of the Wayne County. Here, NY 404 vacates Ridge Road to follow Ridge Road Junction northeasterly down the escarpment—which Ridge Road runs on the edge of throughout most of its alignment in Webster—to NY 104. Ridge Road, in the meantime, becomes locally maintained for its remaining half-mile in Monroe County. The route heads along the top of the escarpment, passing by a smattering of homes, while NY 104—visible from Ridge Road for most of the latter's routing through the town of Ontario—serves a line of businesses at the escarpment's base. The two roads, which run parallel to one another between the village of Webster and Ontario Center, begin to separate at NY 350 in Ontario Center. East of the hamlet, both Ridge Road and NY 104 enter a less-developed area of the county consisting of forests along NY 104 and fields adjacent to Ridge Road. Across the town line in Williamson, Ridge Road and NY 104 pass along opposite ends of Spencer Speedway prior to entering the hamlet of Williamson. Here, Ridge Road takes on the name Main Street as it passes east–west through the community and intersects NY 21 south of where it ends at NY 104. The Ridge Road name returns outside the community; however, the fields do not as the road initially passes by a steady stream of homes on both sides of the highway. It briefly veers northward outside of Williamson, but returns to a more easterly routing ahead of East Townline Road and the Sodus town line. It is at the latter that the amount of development along Ridge Road finally decreases, giving way to slightly more open areas. In western Sodus, Ridge Road and NY 104 follow parallel, slightly northeasterly alignments that eventually lead both to the village of Sodus. Prior to reaching the village, both highways pass by Williamson–Sodus Airport, a local airport situated in between the two roads. Ridge Road continues on to the village, where it meets NY 88—which ends a short distance northwest of this point at NY 104—just west of the village limits. At this point, CR 103 ends while Ridge Road heads eastward, becoming state-maintained again as it follows NY 88 into Sodus. Once inside the Sodus village limits, the name of the road changes to West Main Street. NY 88 remains on Main Street for two blocks to Carlton Street, at which point it turns southward onto Carlton Street and leaves Main Street as an unnumbered, village-maintained highway. While NY 14 leaves Alton to the south, the Seaway Trail follows Ridge Road as the latter breaks from NY 104 and takes a more northerly alignment into the town of Huron than the super two highway. In Wolcott, the path of Ridge Road is known by several names as it traverses the industrial western half of the community—based around a spur of the Ontario Midland Railroad—and its residential eastern portion. It remains West Main Street until New Hartford Street, at which point it becomes just Main Street. One block later, Main Street splits into East Main Street and Mill Street, with Ridge Road following the latter northeast across Wolcott Creek. On the opposite bank of the creek, Mill Street meets Auburn Street, formerly the northernmost part of NY 89, ==History==
History
Origins and early designations The natural rise in the otherwise flat plains of northern Western New York was formed when sand and gravel were deposited at the shore of Glacial Lake Iroquois. This precursor to Lake Ontario, formed while the St. Lawrence River outlet was blocked by glacial ice, had a level about higher than the modern lake, which meant its southern shoreline was approximately south of the modern shore. This ridge became the site of a pre-19th century trail carved out and used by the Algonquian and Iroquois. was initially just wide; however, it was gradually widened into a dirt road in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. One of the first areas to be improved was a section leading west from the Genesee River, which was widened by 1800. On March 1, 1921, the mainline of Route 30 was realigned to follow Ridge Road between Ridgeway and the Rochester city line at Greece. When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, the segment of Route 30 from Rochester to Red Creek became part of NY 3. By 1926, all of legislative Route 30 west of Rochester was designated as part of NY 31. At the time, the entirety of Ridge Road outside of the city of Rochester was state-maintained; however, the piece west of Porter and the section in Irondequoit between the Genesee River and Irondequoit Bay were both unnumbered. The former became part of a realigned NY 31 in the late 1920s, while the latter became part of an extended NY 18 following the completion of the Veterans Memorial Bridge over the Genesee River. for NY 104 on NY 404 (Ridge Road) in Webster US 104 was assigned across Upstate New York , extending from Niagara Falls to Maple View via Lewiston, Rochester, and Oswego. The new US route used the entirety of Ridge Road from Lewiston to Red Creek, save for small portions in and around the city of Rochester; as a result, NY 31 was shifted south onto most of its modern alignment while NY 3 was rerouted south of Watertown to follow what had been NY 3D. When US 104 was first assigned, it dipped south to serve downtown Rochester instead of bypassing it to the north. The route left Ridge Road at Lake Avenue and rejoined it at the junction of Empire Boulevard and Ridge Road in Webster. Construction of expressways Beginning in the 1940s, US 104 began to be moved from Ridge Road to expressways and super two highways constructed to bypass the numerous communities that had developed along Ridge Road east of Rochester. The first portion of the super two, extending from the Monroe–Wayne county line at Union Hill to west of Sodus, was opened to traffic in the mid-1940s. An extension of the highway around Sodus to NY 414 in Huron was built in the mid-1960s, resulting in US 104 being temporarily routed on Lake Bluff Road in between the end of the super two and Ridge Road. The remainder of the super two between Huron and Red Creek was finished in the early 1970s. In place of US 104, Ridge Road in Wayne County was designated as CR 103 west of NY 88, To the southwest, the Keeler Street Expressway was built across Irondequoit in the mid-1960s US 104 was moved from East Ridge Road to the expressway at that time, while NY 18 remained on East Ridge Road until it was truncated to its current eastern terminus in Rochester . East Ridge Road subsequently became CR 241. US 104's former surface alignment between NY 47 and Five Mile Line Road was redesignated NY 404 while US 104 was temporarily realigned onto Five Mile Line Road to travel between the expressway and Ridge Road. US 104 was redesignated as NY 104 by the following year. NY 404 was gradually extended eastward along Ridge Road as new sections of the freeway opened to traffic. By 1978, it was extended to NY 250 in Webster after NY 104 was realigned onto the newly completed frontage roads between Five Mile Line Road and NY 250. following the completion of the freeway from NY 250 to the Wayne County line in the late 1970s and the construction of the main carriageway of NY 104 between Five Mile Line Road and NY 250 in the early 1980s. ==Major intersections==
Major intersections
Ridge Road is part of NY 18F in Lewiston, NY 104 from Lewiston east to the Genesee River in Rochester, and NY 404 in Webster. Intersections along those segments of Ridge Road can be found in the articles on those routes. ==See also==
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