New Jersey Roads - NJ 7 W. of Jersey City/CR 506

NJ 7 west of Jersey City and NJ 7/CR 506

Western NJ 7


The first sign on the north-south part of NJ 7, on the Newark-Belleville border, was the first photo and now is the second photo (also showing that the road becomes CR 667 to the south). While NJ 7 may be signed along a continuous route, NJDOT meticulously ensures that its signal LGS's are fully compliant with the actual route.

The NB shield and sign are in great shape at CR 506/Belleville Ave.


NB along the actual NJ 7/CR 506 duplex, as opposed to the signed one that's really just CR 506. This one is just a block long.


Two problems here. One, you're already on NJ 7, and two, if you're going to point traffic to the right, it should be toward EAST 7, since that's the way it runs in Hudson County. This, if you haven't guessed, is NB on the semi-secret part of NJ 7, which should be legislated by a lazy DOT to just connect already.

Nice old sign NB from Park Ave. in Nutley.

Less nice sign font SB (Kingsland St. EB) at Passaic Ave., still in Nutley.


The SB side of the bridge adjacent to Kingsland Park in Nutley. The square bridge sign is old but common in Passaic County, while state-erected body-of-water signs as old as the Yantacaw one are very rare throughout New Jersey.


Southbound in Clifton, northbound in Nutley. Okay, reread that. I said southbound, not eastbound, because we're on Cathedral Ave. which runs north-south. NJ 7 is signed east-west on Kingsland Rd. for the most part, but then turns north-south again on Washington Ave. The same mistake is made on the NJ 3 eastbound offramp. The bigger mistake, though, is the lack of a TO shield, because NJ 7 doesn't begin until the MILE END sign at the Nutley-Clifton border, which is where the second photo comes in. I left enough background in the first photo to show you where the southbound MILE END sign is (the green smudge), and I left enough in the second photo to show you how far away/close NJ 3 is.
Eastern NJ 7


Eastbound over the Passaic River drawbridge, with NJ 21 in the foreground of the first photo. NJ 7 begins again at NJ 21 and CR 506 ends there, though it used to continue multiplexed to CR 508.


WB photos of same, new in 2002.


Too much is wrong here to contemplate. NJ 7 goes east-west only in Bergen and Hudson Counties, but most of the Bergen County two-lane section is signed north-south for some reason. CR 506 may or may not be duplexed; CR 506 once multiplexed with NJ 7 as far as CR 508, but it appears that CR 506 ends as I said above. That being said, CR 506 also never runs north-south, so the gold-on-blue county banner doesn't belong here. It also doesn't belong under the 7 shield in any case.
Ha, fooled you. There's nothing actually wrong here except some missing shields; this should be EAST 7 SOUTH 507, because those two routes are duplexed here.


This is too far east to be a milemarker, but that's only if you go by the idea that NJ 7 is east-west on this side of the Passaic River. Counting from the Charlotte Circle and heading north (instead of "west"), this does indeed fall at MP 5. Credit goes to the new Straight Line Diagrams (as of 2010) showing the entire road north-south instead of east-west, making this realization possible. Also give credit to Bill Mitchell for insisting this is a milemarker and forcing me to take a new look at it.

Below, photos from the old Belleville Turnpike, which looks like it didn't need to be bypassed (it's straight, not terribly narrow, and not too steep).


NJ 7 EB along the North Arlington-Kearny line. To the right is Arlington Memorial Park. To the left is pointed Porete Ave., but it's quite obvious (from the telephone poles and the way the road curves away from this dead-end) that the old Turnpike is to the left. Oh, and maps say it's the old Turnpike.


Driving down the old Turnpike, which starts off well-paved to accommodate trucks to and from the industries located on Porete Ave., and quickly becomes gravel and then rutted dirt paths. Even on a sunny day, the old Tunrpike ends up badly rutted and full of muddy puddles. My Taurus can't handle that, but someone with a rugged SUV could probably complete the entire alignment without leaving his/her car.




Facing the opposite direction at the lower/eastern end of the old Turnpike, looking back up toward the houses from where I took the other photos.


Looking northwest along the path of the old and new Turnpikes and the cemetery between them.


Original NJ 7 bridge as it crosses swampland, taken from the parallel Amtrak tracks (Amtracks?).


An exceptionally rare square county shield on a BGS. The sign on the right most likely predates I-280, and it's likely the original left sign had a square 508 and an NJTP shield, possibly on a square background itself, from when the Turnpike Exit 15W went directly to CR 508. It also might have had a 2di-width I-280 shield, though at least that was still replaced with a state-name shield. Now, the only square BGS shield is in the "tangle" on the Garden State Parkway ramp to US 9. If you click on this photo, you'll see what Chris Mason warned me about - the shields have all been replaced. No thanks to NJDOT.


I'm not positive that the WB side necessarily has the older BGS's, since there is neither an (original) I-shield nor a tapering exit arrow on the EB side for comparison. This is one example of the rarity of EXIT ↓ ONLY being a continuous panel on older signs; there's another case of this on NJ 3. (Most are two panels with a white-on-green arrow between.) There must have been a TO that fell off of the WB sign. Anyway, if you click on the second sign, you'll see that the same fate has befallen the 2di I-280 shield (and the others) as the square 506 shield (and the others).


The replacement for the eastbound BGS above, although the Fish House Rd./NJ 7 interchange is due to be redesigned shortly (eliminating the inside trumpet, thankfully). What's interesting here is that the through BGS has a US 1-9 ampersand shield, a late 1990's style that disappeared in favor of the hyphen.
Continue east on NJ 7
Onto CR 506 alone
Back to NJ 7 main page


To the Garden State Parkway
Onto CR 507
Onto CR 508
To I-280
To the NJ Turnpike (I-95)
Onto Fish House Road
To US 1-9
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