New York City is a major transit point for both domestic and international passenger and freight traffic. The Port of New York and New Jersey is among the nation's busiest harbors; New York City hosts two major airports, Kennedy International and La Guardia, both in Queens. New York City is connected with the rest of the state by an extensive network of good roads, although road and rail transport within the metropolitan region is sagging with age.
The first railroad in New York State was the Mohawk and Hudson, which made its initial trip from Albany to Schenectady on 9 August 1831. A series of short inter-city rail lines, built during the 1830s and 1840s, were united into the New York Central in 1853. Cornelius Vanderbilt gained control of the New York Central in 1867 and by 1873 had connected New York with Chicago. Under Vanderbilt and his son William, rail links were also forged between New York and Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, and western Pennsylvania.
The height of the railroads' power and commercial importance came during the last decades of the 19th century. After World War I, road vehicles gradually replaced the railroads as freight carriers. In 2000, New York had 4,796 mi (7,718 km) of track. In the same year, there were 2 Class I lines, 2 Canadian lines, 4 regional, 19 local, and 8 switching and terminal railroads.
The decline in freight business, and the railroads' inability to make up the loss of passenger traffic, led to a series of reorganizations and failures: the best known is the merger of the New York Central with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the subsequent bankruptcy of the Penn Central. Today, much of New York's rail network is operated by Conrail, a federally assisted private corporation that among its operations provides commuter service up the Hudson and to New Jersey and Connecticut. Conrail is now owned by CSX Transportation and Norfolk & Southern Railroad. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) owns and operates lines along the eastern corridor from Boston through New York City to Washington, DC. In 1996, it regularly operated 110 daily trains through New York State, stopping at 25 stations. New York City's Penn Station is the busiest station in the entire Amtrak system. The Long Island Railroad, an important commuter carrier, is run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which also operates the New York City subways. Construction of the New York City subway system began in 1900; service started on 27 October 1904. The route network is about 230 mi (370 km) long, of which 137 mi (220 km) are underground.
The only other mass-transit rail line in the state is Buffalo's 6.4 mi (10.3 km) light rail system, of which 5.2 mi (8.4 km) is underground. In 1984, regular trolley service resumed in Buffalo for the first time since 1950 on the other 1.2 mi (1.9 km) of track, running through the downtown shipping district. Among cities served by municipal, county, or metropolitan-area bus systems are Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Elmira, and Syracuse.
In 2000, 10,342,017 motor vehicles were registered in New York State, including 7,501,343 automobiles, 54,083 buses, and 2,679,105 trucks. In addition 107,486 motorcycles were registered. As of 2000, the state had 112,783 mi (181,506 km) of public roads and highways; nearly two-thirds of the mileage was rural. The major toll road, and the nation's longest toll superhighway, is the Thomas E. Dewey Thruway, operated by the New York State Thruway Authority, which extends 559 mi (900 km) from just outside New York City to Buffalo and the Pennsylvania border in southwestern New York. Toll-free expressways include the Adirondack Northway (I-87), from Albany to the Canadian border, and the North–South Expressway (I-81), from the Canadian to the Pennsylvania border.
A number of famous bridges and tunnels connect the five boroughs of New York City with each other and with New Jersey. The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge, opened to traffic in 1964, spans New York Harbor between Brooklyn and Staten Island. Equally famous, and especially renowned for their beauty, are the Brooklyn Bridge (1883), the city's first suspension bridge, and the George Washington Bridge (1931). The Holland (1927) and Lincoln (1937–57) tunnels under the Hudson River link Manhattan with New Jersey. Important links among the five boroughs include the Triborough Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, Queensboro Bridge, Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and Queens-Midtown Tunnel. The Staten Island Ferry conveys passengers and autos between the borough and lower Manhattan.
Until the early 1800s, almost all the state's trade moved on the Atlantic Ocean, Hudson River, and New York Bay. This waterway transportation system was expanded starting in the 1820s. Off the Hudson, one of the country's major arteries, branched the main elements of the New York Barge Canal System: the Erie Canal, linking the Atlantic with Lake Erie, and New York City with Buffalo; the Oswego Canal, connecting the Erie Canal with Lake Ontario; the Cayuga and Seneca Canal, connecting the Erie Canal with Cayuga and Seneca lakes; and the Champlain Canal, extending the state's navigable waterways from the Hudson to Lake Champlain, and so to Vermont and Quebec Province. By 1872, New York's canal system was carrying over 6 million tons of cargo per year; however, an absolute decline in freight tonnage began after 1890 (the relative decline had begun 40 years earlier, with the rise of the railroads). By the mid-1980s, the canals carried less than 10% of the tonnage for 1880.
Buffalo, on Lake Erie, is the most important inland port. In 2000, it handled 2.2 million tons of cargo. Albany, the major port on the Hudson, handled 6.1 million tons of cargo, and Port Jefferson, on Long Island Sound, handled 2.8 million tons in 2000.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the historic and economic importance of New York Harbor—haven for explorers, point of entry for millions of refugees and immigrants, and the nation's greatest seaport until recent years, when it was surpassed by Greater New Orleans and Houston in terms of cargo tonnage. Harbor facilities, including those of Bayonne, Jersey City, and Newark, New Jersey, add up to 755 mi (1,215 km) of frontage, with some 700 piers and wharves. The entire port is under the jurisdiction of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In 2000, it handled 138.7 million tons of cargo. In the mid-1990s, the port was served by 1,000 trucking companies, 80 steamship lines, and 12 intermodal rail terminals.
In 2002, New York State had 555 airfields, including 381 airports, 154 heliports, and 20 seaplane bases. By far the busiest airports in the state are John F. Kennedy International (16,155,437 passengers enplaned in 2000) and La Guardia (12,697,208 passengers enplaned), both in New York City. The Greater Buffalo International Airport, with 2,140,002 enplaned passengers in 2000, is the largest in the state outside New York City.