Pennsylvania Route 434

Pennsylvania Route 434 (PA 434, designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation as SR 0434) is a 12.47 mi state highway located in northeast Pennsylvania. The western terminus of the route is at PA 739 in the Blooming Grove Township community of Lords Valley. The eastern terminus of the route is at the New York-Pennsylvania border in Shohola Township, where PA 434 crosses the Delaware River and enters New York, becoming New York State Route 55 (NY 55) at an intersection with NY 97 in the town of Highland. PA 434 used to be part of PA 37 and PA 137.

Route description
PA 434 begins at an intersection with PA 739 and State Route 4004 (SR 4004) in Lords Valley, a community in Blooming Grove Township. PA 434 heads to the northeast, passing businesses and homes before leaving the community. The highway then gets into a more scenic rural region, with trees surrounding the highway. PA 434, which makes several curves for the next few miles, passes to the south of a lake. The highway continues on for several miles in this way. A short time later, the highway passes a couple homes and crosses Shohola Creek. Just north of the creek, the area becomes somewhat urbanized with homes beginning to surround the road again. However, this does not last long, with forests returning once more. Just north of the community, PA 434 intersects U.S. Route 6 (US 6).

After the intersection with US 6, the surroundings around the highway become a mix of homes and forests. This lasts for much of the distance on PA 434 until Greeley, where it becomes urbanized again. In downtown Greeley, PA 434 splits at an intersection where PA 590 begins. The highway makes a curve, turning to the southeast for a distance north of Greeley. Soon afterwards, PA 434 parallels Shohola Creek, heading northeastward. PA 434 begins to become urbanized for a third time, passing some large buildings along with homes and forests. The creek continues to parallel, with the highway turning in several different directions. The forests begin to recede as PA 434 enters Shohola Township. Twin Lakes Road, a quadrant route, terminates at PA 434 before the route passes under the Southern Tier Line owned by Norfolk Southern and operated by the Central New York Railroad and crosses the Delaware River, where the road becomes NY 55 and Sullivan County Route 11 at the border.

History
In 1928, what is now PA 590 between Lackawaxen and present-day PA 434 in Greeley was designated PA 37. From Greeley, PA 37 continued south along the PA 434 alignment to its southern terminus at US 6. In 1946, PA 37 was removed from the PA 590 alignment.

While PA 37 occupied the 1.5 mi segment of modern PA 434 from US 6 to Greeley, a spur of PA 37, PA 137, occupied the remainder of PA 434 from Greeley to the state line from 1928 to 1946. In 1946, however, PA 37 was realigned to follow the entire alignment of PA 434 from US 6 to New York, decommissioning PA 137 in the process. PA 37 remained in existence until 1967 when PA 37 was replaced by PA 434. In 2004, PA 434 was extended from its southern terminus down to an intersection with PA 739 in Lords Valley.

PA 434 shared a brief 0.1 mi concurrency with US 6 after its extension to PA 739 was created. A new unsignalized intersection was built between 2005 and 2008 eliminating this concurrency.