100 years of US routes: 1926-2026

Endpoints of
US Route 4

Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 260 miles for US 4... however, that included the mileage of US 4's associated business route. According to the state subtotals on AASHTO's 1989 spreadsheet, mainline US 4's actual end-to-end total at the time was 256 miles. That closely matches our own 2020 measurement, which yielded 252.7 miles. Want historic mileages? Our handy reference book includes the mileages that were published in all 13 of AASHO/AASHTO's historic route logs (spanning the years 1927 to 1989).

1926-1930

East: Portsmouth, NH
West: Glens Falls, NY

1930-present

East: Portsmouth, NH
South: East Greenbush, NY

View a map showing this route.

The east end of US 4 has always been in Portsmouth, but its terminus there has been changed several times over the years.

Glens Falls

US 4 was an original 1926 route, but it went only as far west as Glens Falls then:

c. 1927, Rand McNally

US 4 probably followed its current corridor as far as downtown Hudson Falls, but instead of continuing south, it was probably directed west on River Street. That becomes Warren Street in Glens Falls, and where that intersects US 9 (Glen Street) is probably where US 4 ended:

Elbert, Jul. 2006

Today Warren is NY hwy. 32, which continues to the left with US 9. But back when that was US 4, it ended there.

East Greenbush

At that time, obviously all of US 4 would have been considered an east/west route. But in 1930, NYSDoT unilaterally decided to truncate the US 4 designation at Hudson Falls, and extend it south to its current terminus at East Greenbush (not far outside Albany. This decision would ultimately lead to the creation of US 104, details of which can be found in our book).

Later, when NYSDoT began adding directional tabs to their route signs, the entirety of US 4 was signed north/south in their state. So these photos are from the "westernmost" terminus of US 4 (which is actually its south end); here is the last southbound marker, followed by a no-longer-extant "END" assembly:

Bourey, Sep. 2019

Jordan, 2000 (gone as of 2019)

That was looking south on Troy Road, about a mile south of the interchange with I-90. The towns on the green sign are Schodack Center (1 mile left) and Rensselaer (3 miles right). Beyond that is an assembly giving directions for the US highways that are routed along Columbia Turnpike; here is a close-up: