New Jersey Roads - I-78/NJ Tpk. - E. of NJ 24

east of NJ 24 (with
New Jersey Turnpike Newark Bay Extension)


This part of I-78 was built fairly early as part of NJ 24, and signs had both routes on it (there is a famous one still up on the Garden State Parkway northbound).


Posing as an innocent reminder for through traffic, the first sign is actually a ¾-mile WB advance for Exit 48, NJ 24. Express lanes get a button copy distance sign overhead, because they don't have a choice of where to go here, and it leaves me wishing for once that there would be a shield instead of a number. Anyway, when the sign says left, it means it - the left lane splits between NJ 24 and I-78 as you see in the last photo (the button copy half of the assembly), and all other lanes go up toward Morristown. If you want weird, the I-78 Local ramp to the mainline flares out to two lanes, and almost immediately drops back to one lane (since corrected to last just a little longer). Perhaps this has something to do with the proposed but now dead I-278 extension to Exit 49, where the 278 WB ramp to 78 WB might have merged here, but there's no reason to stripe the extra lane anymore; it just confuses the stupid.


I-278 EB was intended to begin here, following the Exit 49B loop ramp. While Exit 49B continues sharply to the right onto NJ 124 EB, 278 would have headed straight through the pasture and forest, and a bunch of homes, and over an old railroad alignment, before connecting the parent and child. This is the most visible stub of the interchange.


EB, all GSP signs are button copy, and the last two are on the exit ramp.


Temporary eastbound construction signage yields a green-on-orange shield! The first is shy of Exit 52, while the second is right on the final mainline gantry, just as the Parkway exit leaves. To see the construction, follow the big link at bottom.


On the combined Exit 52 ramp, this sign is Garden State Parkway standard and peeling rapidly. Similar signs, which have the white part all pasted on the sign (rather than green lettering on a white background as it should be), are scattered all along the Parkway, including some route shields.


This is WB at Exit 52, the second and final chance to get to the Express lanes. After this, the next opportunity to get over is where NJ 24 leaves and takes all of the Local lanes for itself.

Chancellor St. SB.


EB at Exit 54, a remnant of when Garden State Pkwy. NB traffic could only access I-78 East and had to U-turn in Hillside, and then at the local lanes' airport split by Exit 56. Both of these signs are gone now, the former because there's now a direct NB-WB ramp from the Parkway, and the latter because NJDOT hates nice things.


This old railroad bridge is a little north of I-78 and just west of Exit 57.


Badly aging Port Authority signs on the EB Exit 57 roadway, which takes its time merging with the WB exit. These really aren't that old, as Port Authority only abandoned Helvetica in the early 2000s.


Original button copy still left in 1997, courtesy John Krakoff.


This quartet sings to you from the frontage road on the north side of Exit 58.


Failed detour signage at Exit 58B during the Pulaski Skyway closure in 2013. It's missing the word DETOUR, the correct font, and just everything. Everything. Start over.


Original EB signage back when it was timely, courtesy Sandor Gulyas and scanned from a 1962 HNTB Corporation book ("Expressways: Limited Access Highways").


The entrance to I-95 SB from the combined directions of I-78, as seen from Brewster Rd. in Newark Airport.


These white-on-green speed limit signs date from the construction of the Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike, one on the I-78 mainline and one on the merge from I-95 NB. These and the one on I-84 EB in Connecticut are the only speed limit signs I've seen old enough to predate the current black-on-white standard. Also, they're the only button-copy ones I've seen.


Aerial views of the I-78/I-95 Turnpike interchange, where three of the four legs of the road are tolled. The free leg is I-78 (west is down in the photo), and the final barrier is just out of sight below the bottom of the airplane window.


The Casciano (Newark Bay) Bridge and a railroad bridge just to the north, as the Newark Bay Extension of the Turnpike crosses some lovely swampland in a hurry to get to the Holland Tunnel. I-78 continues through that tunnel, taking over NJ 139, but since there are traffic lights in Jersey City, it not only seems more like 139 hits the tunnel, but I decided to put my photos from there on the 139 page (also, this page has about enough photos). 78 ends in New York with four numbered EB exits, and is signed from West Street among other places in Lower Manhattan.


Through Interchange 14A; the other button copy here is on NJ 440.

The remaining photos are courtesy HNTB Corporation, except one, and all on the Newark Bay Extension.


Now cross the Casciano Bridge inside the truss like everyone else.


Eastbound; the last three signs are for the last exit on I-78, which is unnumbered. Exit 14C, the last numbered exit, is just the barrier toll across I-78 upstream. Numbering roots from the fact that Exit 14 is I-78 from the NJ Turnpike, and this is still part of the Turnpike system. Sadly, since these photos were taken, all of the old green gantries have come down, and with them all the old panel backlit signage. If the neon warning sign hasn't come down yet, it won't live for long.


WB, respectively on the back of the last and next-to-last EB gantries above. I at least think the advance tollbooth warning would be a nice sign to have kept.


This old gantry lives, at the Exit 14B onramp, and there are more at Exit 14A from NJ 440 (living on that page, so click the link below). This is my own photo, showing the multiple panels that make up the internally backlit sign.


Dating these photos to 2001 or before, and showing off the side of the gantry. The signs were still up as of 2003, according to Chris Mason, so these weren't pre-removal photos.

Exit 52 (Garden State Parkway) ramp construction
Westward on I-78 WB
West to I-78 EB
East onto NJ 139 and surface I-78
Back to I-78 main page


Exit 52 to the Garden State Parkway
Exit 57 to US 1/9
Exit 57 to Newark Airport
Exit 58A to NJ 21
To US 22
Onto the NJ Turnpike (I-95)
To NJ 440
To NJ 185
See more of Jersey City
Into Hudson County
The Newark Bay Extension of the NJ Turnpike on Steve Anderson's nycroads.com
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