New York State Route 120

NY 120 begins at an intersection with US 1 (Boston Post Road) in the city of Rye. The route proceeds northward along Purchase Street as a two-lane street through the Locust Avenue Business District, intersecting a handful of local streets and serving Rye's station on the Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line. Past the station, the highway passes under the New Haven Line, Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line, and I-95 in quick succession ahead of the Purchase Street Business District. The commercial surroundings give way to residential neighborhoods after three blocks as NY 120 winds northward through the northern part of Rye to the adjacent village/town of Harrison.[3]

In Harrison, NY 120 passes several mansions on both sides of the highway as it gradually turns northwestward and approaches I-287 (the Cross Westchester Expressway). The route parallels the western edge of the freeway for several blocks to Westchester Avenue, where NY 120 meets the southern end of NY 120A, an alternate route through the easternmost part of Westchester County. While NY 120A heads east toward Port Chester, NY 120 takes on the Westchester Avenue name as the two directions of the route split to follow collector/distributor roads running northwestward along both sides of I-287. The route remains on the frontage roads for about a half-mile (0.8 km) to another section of Purchase Street, where NY 120 turns to follow a slightly more northward track through another residential section of Harrison.[3]

NY 120 northbound approaching the junction with NY 22 on the shores of the Kensico Reservoir in North Castle

Less than 1 mile (1.6 km) from I-287, NY 120 connects to the Hutchinson River Parkway by way of exit 27, a diamond interchange just northeast of the parkway's interchanges with I-287 and a reference route spur leading to I-684. Continuing northward from the parkway, the highway enters the hamlet of Purchase, where NY 120 runs along the eastern edge of Manhattanville College's campus and passes a short distance west of the State University of New York at Purchase.[3] Part of Purchase Street near the entrance to SUNY Purchase at Anderson Hill Road is named the Specialist Anthony N. Kalladeen Memorial Highway in memory of United States Army Specialist Anthony Kalladeen, a SUNY Purchase student who was killed in Iraq in 2004.[4][5] A dormitory at the school is also named for him.[6]

Another stretch of homes north of Purchase leads to Westchester County Airport, situated between NY 120 and the New York–Connecticut state line about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east. Here, I-684 begins to run alongside NY 120 as both roads pass by Rye Lake, an offshoot of the Kensico Reservoir. NY 120 widens to four lanes ahead of the airport's main entrance in the town of North Castle, where the road connects to I-684 via Airport Road (unsigned County Route 135 or CR 135).[3]

Continuing northward, I-684 and NY 120 head due north toward the state line, where NY 120A rejoins its parent route at a junction with King Street just north of the airport. From here, I-684 continues north into Connecticut while NY 120 takes on the King Street name and turns northwest to straddle the state line for roughly 1 mile (1.6 km) as a two-lane road. The route passes over I-684 and the northern tip of Rye Lake and serves an industrial complex in the Connecticut town of Greenwich before the state line turns 90 degrees to the northeast. NY 120 remains on a northwesterly alignment, however, and it crosses the Delaware Aqueduct prior to meeting NY 22 (Mount Kisco Road) on the edge of another Kensico Reservoir inlet. The two routes briefly overlap to cross the inlet on a causeway before splitting on the water body's north shore. From here, NY 120 heads through substantially less developed, mostly wooded areas as it traverses the northeastern edge of the reservoir.[3]

North of the reservoir, NY 120 crosses the northernmost part of the Bronx River and traverses the northeastern corner of the town of Mount Pleasant, where the woods give way to a handful of residential neighborhoods. The transition in surroundings continues into the adjacent town of New Castle, home to housing tracts that become less isolated as the road veers westward toward the hamlet of Chappaqua. NY 120 proceeds west through residential and commercial areas to Chappaqua's central business district, where it meets the community's main north–south route, NY 117 (Bedford Road). NY 120 heads north through the center of Chappaqua, overlapping with NY 117 to reach another section of King Street one block to the north. Past NY 117, NY 120 continues generally westward through Chappaqua, changing names to Quaker Road a short distance east of Chappaqua's station on the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line.[3]

NY 120 southbound along concurrency with NY 133 in Millwood

After crossing the Harlem Line, the route dips under the Saw Mill River Parkway and intersects two parallel local streets leading to the parkway's exit 32. NY 120 turns northward here, crossing over the Saw Mill River and leaving Chappaqua for less densely populated areas of the town of New Castle. At 0.6 miles (0.97 km) north of Chappaqua early 19th-century farmhouses that clustered around the Quaker meeting house that was then the center of Chappaqua, line the road. Today these are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Old Chappaqua Historic District.[7]

Roughly 1.5 miles (2.4 km) past the historic district, NY 120 makes a gradual turn to the west to reach a junction with NY 133 (Millwood Road). NY 120 turns onto NY 133, following Millwood Road westward into the hamlet of Millwood and its commercial center.[3] Here, the two routes cross the right-of-way of the former Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad and pass by the site of Millwood's station, which was demolished in May 2012 after years of neglect.[8] Just after the railroad right-of-way, NY 133 turns southwestward onto Station Place while NY 120 proceeds northwest as Millwood Road for one more sparsely developed block before terminating at a junction with NY 100 (Saw Mill River Road) at the northern edge of the hamlet.[3]