It runs in a southwest-to-northeast direction from the Southern Tier to the northern part of Lake George.

NY 8 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York and originally extended north to a ferry across Lake Champlain at Putnam Station, where it connected to Vermont Route F-10 (VT F-10).

The route was realigned slightly on its northern end by 1933 to connect to another ferry leading to VT F-9 east of Ticonderoga.

By the following year, it was altered again to use the new Champlain Bridge at Crown Point to connect to VT 17.

NY 8 leaves the village when crosses the Susquehanna River, briefly entering Otsego County at its far southwestern corner, where it intersects NY 7 before entering Chenango County adjacent to the Unadilla River, a tributary of the Susquehanna.

The routes overlap for a short distance to the north before NY 80 separates to the northwest toward Sherburne.

[6] Shortly after crossing into Oneida County, NY 8 intersects U.S. Route 20 (US 20) in Bridgewater.

Near Sauquoit, NY 8 has exits for Pinnacle Road and Elm Street prior to entering the Utica suburbs.

The two routes merge, forming an overlap east to Chestertown, where US 9 splits from NY 8 and continues south.

[6] In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY 8 was assigned to most of its current alignment from Deposit to Hague.

[20] In the mid-1960s, plans were made to construct a new limited-access highway along the NY 8 corridor from Clayville north to New Hartford, where it would connect with the North–South Arterial.

NY 8 was realigned to follow the highway to New Hartford, from where it continued through Utica on the Arterial and I-790.

Ownership and maintenance of NY 8's former routing north of the Utica city limits was transferred to Oneida County, which designated the highway as CR 92.

The nearly one mile stretch had signalized at-grade intersections that had been causing safety concerns and some fatalities.

The pedestrian bridge was opened by December 2014, and the remainder of the project was completed by October 2017.

[27][28] On October 29, 2019 Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law that a portion of NY 8 was to be designated the "Sidney Veterans' Memorial Parkway" from I-88 to southern end of the bridge over the Susquehanna River in the village of Sidney.