1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering explained

On January 1, 1953, the New Jersey Highway Department renumbered many of the State Routes. This renumbering was first proposed in 1951 in order to reduce confusion to motorists.^[1] A few rules were followed in deciding what to renumber:^[2]

• No state route and U.S. Route could have the same number; this eliminated 1 (which was also eliminated by other criteria), 22, 30, 40 and 46. While Route 1 was broken into several pieces, the other four were renumbered as Routes 59, 69, 70 and 77, respectively. Route 69 later became Route 31 after frequent theft of road signs due to the sexual connotation of the number.
• Concurrencies were highly discouraged; this included U.S. Routes and meant that U.S. Route numbers would now be referred to directly by NJDOT.
• No State Route could have a lettered prefix or suffix unless it was unsigned. (U.S. 9W remained an exception.)
• A State Route that ended at a state border was renumbered to match the number assigned by the adjacent state.
• The New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, and Palisades Interstate Parkway were not to have route numbers.

New numbers assigned semi-arbitrarily included 15 and 20 (13-20 were not assigned in the 1927 renumbering), the sequence from 57 to 93, and 152 to 165 for minor routes (continuing from pre-renumbering 151).^[3]

In the table, S routes (like S1 and S1A) is shown with the S after the number (like 1S and 1SA) for sorting reasons.

!New Route!Old Designation!From!To!Modern Designation!Notes

US 1	local streets	Trenton	Lawrence Township
US 1	26	Lawrence Township	North Brunswick
US 1	26S	North Brunswick	Woodbridge Township
US 1	25	Woodbridge Township	Jersey City
US 1	1	Jersey City	Ridgefield
US 1	6	Ridgefield	Fort Lee
US 1 Alternate	local streets	Trenton	Trenton
US 1 Business	25	Jersey City	New York City	139
US 1/9 Truck	25T	Newark	Jersey City
Route 3	3S	Clifton	East Rutherford
Route 3	3	East Rutherford	Weehawken
Route 4	4	Paterson	Fort Lee
Route 5	5	Ridgefield	Edgewater
Route 7	7	Jersey City	Nutley
US 9	4	Cape May	South Amboy
US 9	35	South Amboy	Woodbridge
US 9	25	Woodbridge	Fort Lee
US 9W	1	Fort Lee	Sparkill
Route 10	10	Ledgewood	West Orange
Route 12	12	Frenchtown	Flemington
Route 13	13E	Bay Head	Point Pleasant
Route 15	6A	Dover	Ross' Corner	15, 181
Route 17	17	North Arlington	Mahwah		Was numbered 2 until March 1942
Route 18	28S	Middlesex	Old Bridge	18
Route 18	28S	Old Bridge	Matawan	CR 516	was signed as TEMP 18 (as this section was cancelled when the Old Bridge to Eatontown freeway was built)
Route 18 (proposed)	18	Old Bridge	Eatontown	18
Route 20	3	Paterson	Hawthorne	20
Route 20	3	East Rutherford	Rutherford	120	Sections were planned to connect but never did
Route 21	21	Newark	Paterson		Belleville to Paterson was numbered 19 until 1948
US 22	24	Philipsburg	east of Philipsburg	US 22
US 22	24-28 Link	east of Philipsburg	Still Valley	US 22
US 22	28	Still Valley	west of North Branch	US 22, 173, Hunterdon CR 626
US 22	28-29 Link	west of North Branch	north of Somerville	US 22
US 22	29	north of Somerville	Newark	US 22
US 22	28A	?	?	US 22
US 22 Alternate	local streets	Pennsylvania	Philipsburg	122
US 22 Alternate	28	Philipsburg	Still Valley	122
Route 23	23	Montague Township	Verona	23
Route 24	24	Philipsburg	Penwell	57
Route 24	24S	Penwell	Hackettstown	57
Route 24	local roads	Hackettstown	Morristown	CR 517, CR 513, CR 510
Route 24	24	Morristown	Maplewood	CR 517, CR 513, CR 510
Route 26	26	North Brunswick	New Brunswick
Route 27	27	Princeton	Newark
Route 28	28	west of North Branch	west of Elizabeth
Route 28	27-28 Link	west of Elizabeth	Elizabeth
Route 29	29	Trenton	Lambertville
Route 29	29A	Lambertville	Frenchtown
US 30	25	Camden	north of Woodlynne
US 30	45	north of Woodlynne	Woodlynne		US 30 overlaps US 130 here
US 30	43	Woodlynne	Absecon
US 30	56	Absecon	Atlantic City
Route 33	33	Trenton	Ocean Grove
Route 34	34	Brielle	Matawan
Route 34	4A	Matawan	Cheesequake
Route 35	37	Seaside Heights	Point Pleasant
Route 35	35	Point Pleasant	South Amboy		35 overlaps US 9 for a short distance in South Amboy
Route 35	4	South Amboy	Rahway
Route 36	36	Keyport	Eatontown
Route 37	37	Lakehurst	Seaside Heights
Route 38	38	Pennsauken	Wall Township	38, 138
US 40	local streets	Deepwater	west of Sharptown
US 40	48	west of Sharptown	Atlantic City
Route 41	41	Fairview	Maple Shade
Route 42	42	Williamstown	Camden
Route 44	44	Bridgeport	Thorofare
Route 45	45	Salem	Westville
US 46	6	Columbia	Fort Lee
Route 47	49S	Wildwood	South Dennis
Route 47	49	South Dennis	Millville
Route 47	47	Millville	Brooklawn
Route 48	48	Penn's Grove	west of Sharptown
Route 49	44	Deepwater	Salem
Route 49	49	Salem	Millville
Route 49	47	Millville	Tuckahoe
Route 50	50	Seaville	Egg Harbor City
Route 52	52	Ocean City	Somer's Point
Route 53	5N	Morris Plains	Denville
Route 54	54	Buena	Hammonton
Route 55	55	Teaneck	New York		unbuilt New Jersey Turnpike Extension; until 1948, Route 55 went from Egg Harbor City boundary to Atlantic City; this became part of Route 48 in 1948 and this Route 55 was created
Route 57	24S	south of Hackettstown	Hackettstown	182
Route 58	25A	Newark	Harrison	I-280
Route 59	22	Cranford
Route 60	new	Verga	Bridgeboro	I-295	route later changed from Deepwater to Ocean City that remains unbuilt; it may or may not be built due to opposition
Route 61	3S Spur	Clifton		161	Route 61 is only indicated on one late 1950s Essex County Hagstrom map and in the NJ highway code for mid-block crosswalks, so Route 61 may not have existed
Route 62	6S	Totowa	Paterson
Route 63	1S	North Bergen	Fort Lee
Route 64	31A	Princeton	Hightstown
Route 65	25B	Newark		Port St, Doremus Ave
Route 66	33-35 Link	Shrewsbury Township	Neptune Township
Route 67	1SA	Fort Lee
Route 68	39S	Mansfield Township	Fort Dix
Route 69	30	Trenton	Buttzville		Renumbered Route 31 on May 15, 1967 due to sign thefts because of numbering.
Route 70	40	Pennsauken	Laurelton
Route 70	34	Laurelton	Brielle
Route 71	4N	Eatontown	Brielle
Route 72	40S	Four Mile	Ship Bottom
Route 73	41S	Palmyra	east of Berlin
Route 77	46	Bridgeton	Mullica Hill
Route 79	4A	Freehold	Matawan
Route 82	24S	Springfield Township	Union
Route 83	49	South Dennis	Clermont
Route 84	84	Sussex	New York	284
Route 87	56S	Atlantic City	Brigantine
Route 88	35	Lakewood	Point Pleasant
Route 91	26A	North Brunswick	New Brunswick
Route 92	N/A?	Princeton	Hightstown		proposed route later shifted north to New Jersey Turnpike in Jamesburg to Rocky Hill, but was cancelled entirely due to environmental problems.
Route 93	5S	Ridgefield	Palisades Park
Route 94	8	Columbia	north of Newton
Route 94	31	north of Newton	New York
US 130	44	Deepwater	Bridgeport
US 130	new alignment	Bridgeport	Thorofare
US 130	44	Thorofare	Westville
US 130	45	Westville	Woodlynne		US 130 overlapped US 30 for a short time in Woodlynne.
US 130	25	Woodlynne	New Brunswick
Route 151	Camden		151	S 10th and 11th St
Route 152	Trenton		new	29
Route 153	Secaucus		3 (old route)	Paterson Plank Rd
Route 154	Haddonfield	northeast of Haddonfield	41 (old bypass)
Route 155	Cinnaminson	Palmyra	41SN	Cinnaminson Ave
Route 156	Yardville		US 130 (old route)
Route 157	Absecon		4S
Route 158	Newark	Harrison	25AD	Rector Street, Essex Street; bridge demolished
Route 159	Montville	Fairfield	6M
Route 160	South of White Horse		unknown	Mission Rd
Route 161	3S Spur	Clifton			May have been numbered Route 61 for a short time.
Route 162	4SC	Lower Township			Not taken over by the state until 1969.
Route 163	6 (old route)	Knowlton Township
Route 164	100S	Elizabeth
Route 165	29 (old route)	Lambertville		29
US 202	29S	Pennsylvania	Lambertville
US 202	29	Lambertville	Raritan
US 202	32	Lambertville	Wayne
US 202	local roads	Wayne	New York
US 206	39	Hammonton	White Horse
US 206	37	White Horse	Trenton
US 206	local streets	Trenton
US 206	27	Trenton	Princeton
US 206	31	Princeton	Newton
US 206	31S	Newton	Montague
Route 208	4SB	Fair Lawn	Oakland
Route 303	4SD	Teaneck	Northvale
US 322	44S, 51, local roads, 42, 48	Bridgeport	McKee City
Route 413	25S	Burlington
Route 439	28	New York	Route 28 Elizabeth
Route 439	24	Route 28 in Elizabeth	Route 82 in Elizabeth
Route 439	North Ave Link	Route 82 in Elizabeth	Route 27 in Elizabeth
Route 440	4S	west of Woodbridge Township	New York		south section; connected by NY 440
Route 440	1	New York	Jersey City		north section
Route 444	4 Parkway	New York	Cape May		unsigned
Route 444R	4 Parkway Exit 117	south of Keyport	Keyport	4 Parkway Exit 117	decommissioned in 2006
Route 444S	4 Parkway Exit 105	west of Eatontown	Eatontown		unsigned
Route 445	Palisades Interstate Parkway	New York	Fort Lee		unsigned
Route 445S	Palisades Interstate Parkway Spur	Route 445 in Fort Lee	US 9W in Fort Lee		unsigned
County Road 506	9	Belleville	Pine Brook
Route 700	100	Fort Lee	New Brunswick		unsigned
Route 700	300	New Brunswick	Deepwater		unsigned
local roads	2N	Lyndhurst	Nutley		now Page and Park Avenue
unbuilt and cancelled	11	White House	Warrenville
unbuilt and cancelled	101	Kearny	Hackensack
unbuilt and cancelled	101S	Hackensack	New York

See also

• • • 1927 New Jersey State Route renumbering

Notes and References

1. News: Jersey Highways To Be Renumbered. The New York Times. November 21, 1951. 24.
2. News: July 20, 2009 . New Road Signs Ready in New Jersey . The New York Times . December 16, 1952 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110721112422/http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6933/19521216newroadsignsreaiu6.jpg . July 21, 2011 .
3. Web site: 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering. https://web.archive.org/web/20110628183145/http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1953_New_Jersey_state_highway_renumbering. dead. 2011-06-28.