The two-state highway begins as NY 71 at a Y intersection with NY 22 in Green River, a hamlet within the town of Hillsdale in Columbia County, New York. Both legs of the junction are two-lane, two-way roads; however, only the southern leg is officially designated as part of NY 71. The north leg is also state-maintained but designated as NY 980E, an unsigned reference route. NY 71 heads southeastward from the Y intersection as a two-lane road named Nobletown Road, following the Green River through a narrow valley in the Taconic Mountains. It passes several homes in an otherwise wooded area on its way to the Massachusetts state line, from which the roadway continues as that state's Route 71. Now in the town of Alford in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Route 71 changes names to Green River Valley Road, continuing through residential areas in the base of the river valley. The valley and the road curve slightly southward near the Egremont town line, at which point the level of development along the highway begins to slowly taper off. Across the town line, Route 71 changes names to Egremont Plain Road. It continues alongside the Green River to North Egremont, an unincorporated village comprising a small cluster of homes around Route 71's junction with Boice and Prospect Lake roads. In the center of the community, the highway passes along the east side of the National Register of Historic Places-listed North Egremont Historic District. Outside of the village, Route 71 bends back to the southeast, proceeding through another rural stretch to reach the residential village of Egremont Plain. Near the center of the community, the highway crosses into the town of Great Barrington and passes south of Walter J. Koladza Airport. Route 71 continues to serve mostly residential areas until it ends at a junction with Route 23 and Route 41 about east of the town line and southwest of the town center.
History
In mid-1928, the state of New York awarded a contract worth $139,262 to improve the New York portion of the Green River–Great Barrington highway to state highway standards. Work on the highway was completed by the following year. At the state line, the road connected to an unimproved road leading southeast through North Egremont to Great Barrington. The state of Massachusetts had planned to reconstruct the road after work on its continuation into New York was completed; however, the New York state line–Great Barrington highway remained unimproved through the end of the decade. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the section of the Green River–Great Barrington highway in New York was designated as NY 71. Its Massachusetts continuation became Route 69 ; it was subsequently renumbered in 1939 to Route 71 to match the New York designation.
