History of state highways in New Jersey (pre-1927)

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

was one of the first U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

s to adopt a system of numbered state highway

State highway

State highway, state road or state route can refer to one of three related concepts, two of them related to a state or provincial government in a country that is divided into states or provinces :#A...

s. The Egan Bill (1916 state laws, chapter 285) designated the initial system of 13 routes:

Route 1, Elizabeth - Rahway - New Brunswick - Hightstown - Trenton
Route 2, Trenton - Burlington - Camden
Route 3, Camden - Berlin - Egg Harbor City - Absecon
Route 4, Rahway - Perth Amboy Asbury Park - Point Pleasant - Lakewood - Toms River - Absecon
Route 5, Newark - Morristown - Denville - Dover - Hackettstown - Delaware Bridge
Delaware Bridge
The Darlington's Bridge at Delaware Station was a highway bridge over the Delaware River in the community of Delaware, New Jersey . Formerly a railroad bridge constructed by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1855, the bridge was sold off when the new one upstream was constructed....
Route 6, Camden - Westville - Mullica Hill; split at Mullica Hill for Pittsgrove - Bridgeton and Woodstown - Salem; connection Bridgeton-Salem
Route 7, Hightstown - Freehold - Asbury Park
Route 8, Montclair - Sussex - Unionville, New York
Route 9, Elizabeth - Somerville - Phillipsburg
Route 10, Paterson - Hackensack - Fort Lee Ferry
Route 11, Paterson - Newark
Route 12, Paterson - Denville - Dover - Hackettstown - Phillipsburg
Route 13, New Brunswick - Princeton - Trenton

The Edge Bill (L. 1917 c. 14) went into more detail on funding, maintenance, and similar issues, and added two more routes:

Route 14, Egg Harbor City - Mays Landing - Seaville - Rio Grande - Cape May
Route 15, Bridgeton - Millville - Rio Grande

A sixteenth route was added by 1921:

Route 16, Morristown - Somerville - Princeton

However, after 1921, the process was less coordinated, as local politicians tried to get their route built without concern for duplication of numbers. The State Highway Commission was not allowed to change the numbers; the best they could do was assign suffixes. Where multiple routes existed with the same number, suffixes of N and S were used for the northernmost and southernmost. Starting in 1923, various unnumbered routes were also assigned; none of these were taken over by 1927. Along with various modifications to the existing routes, the following additional numbered routes were assigned in 1923 (everything after 1923 was unnumbered):

Route 17N, Newark - Hackensack - Suffern, New York
Suffern, New York
Suffern is a village in the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of the State of New Jersey; east of Hillburn; south of Montebello and west of Airmont...

(L. 1923 c. 5, 177, 181, 183, 184)
Route 17S, Westville - Penns Grove (L. 1923 c. 199)
Route 18, Camden - Mount Holly - Toms River (L. 1923 c. 184)
Route 18N, Hoboken - Alpine (L. 1923 c. 197)
Route 18S, Penns Grove - Woodstown - Pittsgrove - Malaga - Mays Landing - Pleasantville - Atlantic City (L. 1923 c. 181, 183)
Route 19, Seaville - Pleasantville - Absecon (L. 1923 c. 182, 183)
Route 20, Berlin - Haddonfield - Camden (L. 1923 c. 177)
Route 20, Westville - Malaga - Millville (L. 1923 c. 182)

Construction and maintenance transfers began by 1917 with Route 13 (the Lincoln Highway

Lincoln Highway

The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...

, now Route 27

Route 27 (New Jersey)

Route 27 is a state highway in New Jersey, United States. It runs from U.S. Route 206 in Princeton Borough, Mercer County northeast to an interchange with Route 21 and Broad Street in Newark, Essex County. The route passes through many communities along the way, including New Brunswick, Metuchen,...

) north of Kingston; the routes were marked by 1922.

In 1926, a partial renumbering was proposed to eliminate duplicates and assign a number to every route; this would have given the system numbers from 1 to 30. Instead, a total renumbering was adopted in 1927 as public law chapter 319. This system - the 1927 renumbering - assigned numbers from 1 to 12 in northern New Jersey, 21 to 28 roughly radiating from Newark, 29 to 37 from Trenton, 38 to 47 from Camden, and 48 to 50 in southern New Jersey. Portions of the pre-1927 routes that had been taken over or built, but were not assigned new numbers, kept their old numbers. These four routes - Route 4N, Route 5N, Route 8N and Route 18N

Route 18N (New Jersey)

Route 18N was a state highway in New Jersey from 1923 to 1929, when it was renumbered as Route 1 and Route S1A. Route 18-N was defined in 1923 to run "from Hoboken to New York State line by way of Weehawken, West Hoboken, town of Union, North Bergen, Fairview, Ridgefield, Palisade Park, Fort Lee,...

- were all assigned the suffix N (as the only suffixed one to remain was 18N, and the others needed to be distinguished from the new routes of the same number).

External links

1920s New Jersey Highways

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See also

External links