The new beginning of NJ 21. For a long time, 21 ended in an octopus of ramps in the middle of Passaic, and one needed to follow surface roads to US 46. Finally, the freeway found funding and was pushed through, replacing the tangled Lexington Avenue interchange with 46 in a neat double merge - Lexington and 21 both only tie into US 46 to the east.


With the completion of NJ 21, 20 and 21 are now just a few hundred feet away from each other, and are similar quality roads (20 is an expressway, McLean Boulevard). It would make sense to turn NJ 20 into a real route again (it once was planned to include both NJ 120 and NJ 19 - if it only included the latter as a loop around Paterson, both ends would be at US 46). However, since two of the three original pieces of 20 have different names, I think it would be poetic justice to kill the last remaining piece... and then resurrect it as a superhighway! Or not.
Notice that little assembly in the corner of the second sign. It used to only say "U", and I made fun of it, and then NJDOT read this and removed it, and that saddens me, because I only make fun of the signs I love. To expand on my U-turn text, you can't access US 46 WB from NJ 21 NB, and neither can you access 21 SB from 46 EB, so traffic desiring either movement needs to take CR 507 from 46 EB. The first picture is taken just before the Lexington Avenue onramp that was reconfigured to make room for NJ 21. Note the county route shield with a white background, as opposed to standard yellow, versus the new-style ugly wide shields that contrast the proper first shield.


The first photo is in the lower right hand corner of the last one in the previous run, and was taken from the NJ 20 SB/Crooks Avenue onramp to US 46 EB. The others continue on EB 46.


The NJ 20 split as seen from the Passaic River bridge, with the final photo in the thick of the interchange on that Crooks/GSP/20 ramp. Traffic that heads straight comes down to a traffic light, and GSP traffic turns left onto the US 46 onramp from Crooks Ave. Before this interchange was redone, NJ 20 SB traffic to US 46 WB also had to come through this traffic light, but now it flies over.


This is the final hookup between the Parkway and US 46. They met a few miles west of here, where the Parkway crossed 46 on its way north. 46 kept going east till it hit the Passaic River, where it found NJ 21, and turned north to get to its bridge. By turning north, it ran into the Parkway again, which was turning east for its own bridge. Once across the river, both roads go the right way once again, and this ramp is EB at Exit 157 (this all started at Exit 154).


WB, same area. Aren't the old 507 BGS's so much nicer than the new ones?


Why are these shields peeling? To me, they look a good bit newer than the signs themselves, so whoever replaced the shields did a crummy job.


Old drawbridge gate (EB) entering Ridgefield Park.


WB at the junction with I-95, right where it becomes the NJ Turnpike (Turnpike maintenance continues north from here, but that was sold by NJDOT, and is a free road). The second photo shows what is obviously a tacked-on shield, as the rest of the sign is button-copy and any other non-black-background shield I've ever seen on a BGS is either really old or really new. The last two photos are on the ramp to I-95; the I-80 WB exit actually goes to I-95 NB, but to a set of lanes that have no access to the other NB lanes until they peel off and merge with 80. The first of those two ramp photos has four arrows pointing down to just two lanes; the left BGS at least shoves the arrows close together, but sorry, Teaneck Road, you're just not that important. Since 2002 or 2003, the left entrance from US 9W to I-95 SB has been closed, and so local traffic from Fort Lee has been coming down US 46 to this very interchange, taking this ramp to I-80 WB and I-95 SB.
Until 1971, when I-95 was extended to the Bergen-Passaic Expressway (I-80), this was a trumpet interchange, and all the Turnpike through traffic went eastward on US 46 to the US 1/9/46 multiplex, then northward to the George Washington Bridge. Remnants of the trumpet include the NB-WB ramp from its overpass of US 46 to the merge, as well as the initial divergence of this WB ramp from mainline 46. Interesting tidbit: The overpass for the NB-WB loop (which passes inside the WB ramp) is still two lanes wide for a one-lane ramp, so obviously it has never been replaced. Interesting tidbit number 2: The original end of the Turnpike, including where it widened to have its final tollbooth, still has a large piece intact that's being used as a parking lot just to the south of this interchange (Exit 68), and the ghost of the original NB-EB ramp extends from there just outside the current ramp. Interesting tidbit number 3: US 46 (and 1/9/46) from here east to the GW Bridge has always been four lanes (although early on it was two undivided lanes with shoulders, restriped in the 1950's and divided shortly thereafter - thanks Adam Froehlig), so as you can imagine there must have been quite the traffic crunch, given that the Western Spur had opened the year before, meaning there were eight lanes' worth of traffic from the Turnpike, plus four lanes from US 46, plus two lanes from US 1-9.


EB at the same junction, which as you can see also involves a bunch of local movements (what good NJ interchange doesn't?). I'm intrigued by the fact that the clearly older (possibly original) shields are the ones without the state names. It's probable these signs (the two with the oldest shields) predate the common usage of the NJ Turnpike shield.


Same area, on the EB side (you can see a corner of one of the above signs in the background), but this will come up quickly if you're not expecting it. It's right at the Teaneck Rd. overpass. Click for closeup and pray this sign sticks around for another 70 years.


Finishing up the EB run, including one tacked onto the US 1-9 overpass (well, really just SB 1-9, as NB turns onto the US 46 frontage road before merging). Those shields ain't quite right in the first photo.


At the US 1-9 offramp is this MILE END. I'd love if US 46 actually ended here, but if anything, NJDOT considers the US 1/9/46 multiplex to be part of the US 46 roadway.


After that exit, before US 1-9 merge to start the next page eastward, the Palisades Park Jersey freeway (driveways but no at-grade intersections) that was constructed in 1930, courtesy Lou Corsaro.

Westward on US 46
East onto US 1/9/46
Back to US 46 main page

Onto NJ 21
Onto NJ 20
Onto the Garden State Parkway
Onto CR 507
Onto NJ 17
Onto I-80
Onto I-95 and N.J. Turnpike
Onto Teaneck Road, Bergen CR 17/39
Onto NJ 93
Onto US 1-9
Onto Broad Ave.
Back to NJ Roads
Back to Roads