 New York State Route 12E | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Map of Jefferson County and vicinity with NY 12E highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Auxiliary route of NY 12 | ||||
| Maintained by NYSDOT, Jefferson County and the city of Watertown | ||||
| Length | 36.08 mi[1] (58.07 km) | |||
| Existed | 1930[2]–present | |||
| Tourist routes |  Great Lakes Seaway Trail | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| South end |  NY 12F in Brownville | |||
| North end |  NY 12 in Clayton | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | New York | |||
| Counties | Jefferson | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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New York State Route 12E (NY 12E) is a state highway located entirely within the northwestern part of Jefferson County in northern New York in the United States. The southern terminus is at NY 12F in the village of Brownville. Its northern terminus, both signed and official, is at NY 12 in the village of Clayton. While NY 12 follows a direct north–south routing between Watertown and Clayton, NY 12E diverges westward to follow the shoreline of Lake Ontario. The portion of NY 12E north of its junction with NY 180 is part of the Seaway Trail, a National Scenic Byway.
Most of modern NY 12E was originally designated as part of NY 3 in 1924. NY 3 was moved onto its current alignment east of Watertown as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, at which time its former routing between Watertown and Clayton became NY 12E. From Watertown to Limerick, what is now NY 12E was originally NY 12F. The alignments of the two routes were flipped in the late 1930s. In 1980, Jefferson County assumed maintenance of NY 12E between the Watertown city line and Brownville as part of a highway maintenance swap between the county and the state. This section is now county-maintained as County Route 190 (CR 190).