[4] The remainder of the mainline was opened in 1955, and many of its spurs connecting to highways in other states and the Canadian province of Ontario were built in the 1950s.

The Garden State Parkway Connector, the Cross Westchester Expressway and the section of the mainline in and around Buffalo are toll-free.

[10] The mainline of the Thruway begins (in terms of exit numbers and mileposts) as a continuation of the Major Deegan Expressway, carrying I-87 northward into Westchester County from New York City at the border between Yonkers and the Bronx.

[citation needed] After the toll, the thruway continues to exit 7, which grants access to Ardsley and Saw Mill River Road.

All three highways take generally parallel tracks to Elmsford, where I-87 directly intersects the Saw Mill River Parkway at exit 7A.

The Thruway continues generally westward to Suffern, where I-87 and I-287 split at a large semi-directional T interchange (exit 15) near the New Jersey border.

[citation needed] Past Kingston, the highway runs closer to the river as it parallels U.S. Route 9W (US 9W) through the towns of Saugerties, Catskill, Coxsackie, and Ravena.

[citation needed] Like Schenectady before it, the Thruway bypasses downtown Utica, following an alignment north of the city while I-790 serves it directly.

I-790 breaks from the Thruway at exit 31 and runs along two carriageways flanking the mainline on both sides for 1.5 miles (2.4 km) before turning southward onto the North-South Arterial.

At the end of this stretch, the Thruway turns slightly southwestward, crossing over the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal while NY 49 continues northwestward along the northern bank of the water-bodies toward Rome.

Here, the Thruway connects to the cities of Rome and Oneida and serves the Turning Stone Resort & Casino via NY 365.

The highway continues onward through a sparsely-populated area between Verona and Syracuse, passing roughly 5 miles (8 km) south of Oneida Lake as it connects to the village of Canastota by way of NY 13 at exit 34.

The level of development rises sharply west of I-481 as the Thruway enters Salina, a northern suburb of Syracuse.

[citation needed] West of Salina, the Thruway passes north of Liverpool and Onondaga Lake before intersecting I-690 and its northern continuation, NY 690, at exit 39 in Van Buren.

At this point, the amount of development along the Thruway sharply declines as it heads generally westward through a marshy area of Onondaga County.

Now in Cayuga County, the highway serves Weedsport via exit 40 and NY 34, exit 41 serving Del Lago Resort and Casino in Tyre, New York and passes north of Port Byron prior to entering Seneca County and the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

Once again a toll road, the Thruway heads southwestward, roughly paralleling the shoreline of Lake Erie to Blasdell, where it connects to NY 179 (the Milestrip Expressway).

The highway begins at exit 21A off the Thruway southwest of Selkirk in the town of Coeymans (south of Albany) as NY 912M, an unsigned reference route.

The unsigned NY 912M designation terminates here while I-90 joins the Berkshire Connector and follows the spur east into Columbia County.

The junction serves as the northern terminus of the Taconic State Parkway, which connects the spur to the New York City area.

Just north of the state line, the southbound connector meets Red Schoolhouse Road (County Route 41 or CR 41) at a partial diamond interchange.

[1] A toll superhighway connecting the major cities of the state of New York that would become part of a larger nationwide highway network was proposed as early as 1949.

[14] By December 1996, it was implemented at all of the Thruway's fixed-toll barriers and at exits along the Berkshire Connector and the New York City–Buffalo section of the mainline.

This was never implemented, as the FHWA wished to preserve the I-88 numbering for a potential future corridor connecting Albany and northern interior New England.

Part of the justification for replacing the bridge stems from its construction immediately following the Korean War on a low budget of only $81 million.

[40] The Federal Highway Administration issued a report in October 2011 designating the Tappan Zee's replacement to be a dual-span twin bridge.

The service areas, called "travel plazas" by the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA), are spaced roughly 30 miles (48 km) apart and are open at all hours of the day.

[65] Prior to the implementation of electronic tolling, the longer of the two closed-toll systems began at Woodbury and extended from NY 17 to just east of exit 50 in Williamsville.

[72] As of August 2021, the Berkshire Connector costs $1.03 ($0.79 with New York E-ZPass) to travel between the Massachusetts state line and exit B1.

[67] The Black Rock and City Line toll barriers on the Niagara Thruway in Buffalo charged $0.75 at the time of their removal on October 30, 2006.