Newburgh-Beacon Bridge Traffic: Annual Crossings Since 1963
Ref. NG/010In 1963, its first partial year of counting, the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge recorded 284,359 vehicle crossings. In 2024 it recorded 28,494,216, about 100.2 times as many. The 62 annual figures between those two points are published by the New York State Bridge Authority and are reproduced below in full.
The series, decade by decade
The 62 annual figures are filed a decade to a leaf. Each row carries the count and its share of the record year; pick a year and it tips forward with the change on the year before it.
1960s22,115,645 crossings across the decade · best year 1969
| Year | Crossings | Share of the record year |
|---|---|---|
| 284,359 | ||
| 2,246,496 | ||
| 2,833,753 | ||
| 3,182,743 | ||
| 3,893,317 | ||
| 4,482,735 | ||
| 5,192,242 |
1970s88,599,075 crossings across the decade · best year 1978
| Year | Crossings | Share of the record year |
|---|---|---|
| 5,986,523 | ||
| 7,283,666 | ||
| 8,482,602 | ||
| 9,144,842 | ||
| 8,746,536 | ||
| 9,293,398 | ||
| 9,698,166 | ||
| 10,009,488 | ||
| 10,269,138 | ||
| 9,684,716 |
1980s142,765,238 crossings across the decade · best year 1989
| Year | Crossings | Share of the record year |
|---|---|---|
| 10,048,700 | ||
| 11,076,706 | ||
| 11,678,938 | ||
| 12,819,212 | ||
| 13,847,392 | ||
| 14,636,048 | ||
| 15,398,820 | ||
| 16,725,164 | ||
| 17,997,426 | ||
| 18,536,832 |
1990s203,306,010 crossings across the decade · best year 1999
| Year | Crossings | Share of the record year |
|---|---|---|
| 19,130,792 | ||
| 19,469,850 | ||
| 19,695,116 | ||
| 19,550,914 | ||
| 19,659,064 | ||
| 20,011,332 | ||
| 20,562,924 | ||
| 21,110,502 | ||
| 21,715,118 | ||
| 22,400,398 |
2000s248,871,060 crossings across the decade · best year 2004
| Year | Crossings | Share of the record year |
|---|---|---|
| 23,109,248 | ||
| 24,273,758 | ||
| 25,175,868 | ||
| 25,345,936 | ||
| 25,829,046 | ||
| 25,180,272 | ||
| 25,110,664 | ||
| 25,478,506 | ||
| 24,734,276 | ||
| 24,633,486 |
2010s256,069,562 crossings across the decade · best year 2019
| Year | Crossings | Share of the record year |
|---|---|---|
| 25,111,916 | ||
| 24,728,728 | ||
| 24,682,092 | ||
| 24,759,410 | ||
| 24,709,000 | ||
| 25,036,744 | ||
| 26,469,418 | ||
| 26,718,598 | ||
| 26,922,078 | ||
| 26,931,578 |
2020s124,904,264 crossings across the decade · best year 2024
| Year | Crossings | Share of the record year |
|---|---|---|
| 19,305,190 | ||
| 24,408,628 | ||
| 25,350,012 | ||
| 27,346,218 | ||
| 28,494,216 |
28,494,216
vehicle crossings in 2024 — up 4.2 per cent on 2023.
Bars are drawn against 2024, the record year. Counts published by the New York State Bridge Authority.
The one break in the series
Traffic fell 28.3 per cent between 2019 and 2020, from 26,931,578 crossings to 19,305,190. That is the only fall of that size anywhere in six decades of counting, and the recovery took four years: the 2019 figure was not beaten until 2024. What the series does not show is how much of the recovery is commuting and how much is through-traffic on Interstate 84, because the count does not distinguish them.
The five Hudson crossings compared
| Newburgh–Beacon | 28,494,216 | 780,179,764 |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-Hudson | 14,216,266 | 563,831,066 |
| Bear Mountain | 7,219,764 | 251,169,001 |
| Kingston–Rhinecliff | 8,182,164 | 247,711,622 |
| Rip Van Winkle | 6,354,938 | 203,131,789 |
Newburgh-Beacon took 44.2 per cent of the authority's combined traffic in 2024. The Rip Van Winkle crossing, 60 miles upriver, took under a tenth as many vehicles.
Reuse
The chart above may be embedded. The underlying counts are public: they belong to the New York State Bridge Authority and are published as Traffic Counts for Select Bridges: Beginning 1933.
Credit line to copy: Newburgh-Beacon Bridge annual crossings, 1963–2024. Source: New York State Bridge Authority, via newburghgazette.com/data/newburgh-beacon-bridge/
Questions about the crossing figures
How many vehicles cross the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge each year?
28,494,216 in 2024, the highest annual count in the series. Cumulative traffic since counting began is 780,179,764 vehicles.
What do these figures actually count?
Annual vehicle crossings as counted by the New York State Bridge Authority. Each crossing is counted once, in the direction tolls are collected, so the figure is not a count of individual vehicles and not a measure of vehicle-miles.
How far did traffic fall in 2020?
28.3 per cent, from 26,931,578 crossings in 2019 to 19,305,190 in 2020. The series did not pass its previous high again until 2024.
Is Newburgh-Beacon the busiest of the Hudson crossings?
Of the five operated by the New York State Bridge Authority, yes. It took 44.2 per cent of their combined 2024 traffic, more than the Mid-Hudson and Bear Mountain crossings put together.
Where does the data come from?
The New York State Bridge Authority, published as "Traffic Counts for Select Bridges: Beginning 1933" through the New York State open data portal. One row in that dataset carries no year and holds the all-years cumulative total; it is reported separately here rather than counted as a year.