This SB sign is so long because Main St is trying to distance itself from that awful shield.


Everyone who claims NJ should be a part of PA, rejoice! One of the dumbest errors I've come across in awhile, and that includes upside-down signal warning signs and circular shields in square states. I mean, this one took a lot of effort! It's been replaced by a real shield now, and I hope some roadgeek somewhere is smiling because he's holding this one in his hands. US 206 ran through the center of Netcong until a short freeway was built from I-80 around the northwestern quarter of the town. Since there's a rotary in the center of town (at which the above signs are seen), it's probably better that 206 detours via 80 and that freeway, leaving NJ 183, old US 206, to cover the role of business route. With the traffic loads the highway carries, US 206 really needs to be a full freeway from well north of I-80 to the Trenton area. Unfortunately, there isn't room for it.


Mmm, assorted road candy. A nice state-name shield for I-80 that could be the original shield standing at this ramp, plus an arrow that's as big as the 206 shield. That's what we call a freeway-size arrow, and it has definitely been recycled from some place else. By the way, US 46 does not multiplex with I-80 here, but it's easier to go ½ mile to Exit 27, where the old freeway used to merge into 46. And you're not really turning right to get to US 46 EB, but just bearing right/going straight. And where's any mention of NJ 183?


I-80 WB/US 206 NB on their short multiplex. The only reason there's button copy here is because the sign really belongs to the upcoming US 206 freeway-ette.


I-80 EB/US 206 SB, where the shields are scared of each other.


The International Trade Center signs continue a button-copy progression that starts on the US 206 NB/I-80 WB multiplex. This is it for the NB freeway.


SB signage is considerably more complicated. Starting with a couple of old I-80 and NJ 183 shields just before the beginning of the freeway, it progresses past button copy and an NJ 206 shield (there are more, be patient), past a button-copy gore sign, to more button copy at I-80.


An embossed sign on Acorn Street in Lockwood, just off the first traffic light on US 206 (a NB reverse jughandle).


Just like on US 202, there are plenty of these errors to go around (such as the one just above in the run of SB signage). The last one is actually pretty close to the top of the state.


Somewhere in this area is the Electrical Bureau of NJDOT Region 3? You try reading the sign, this is the best I could do and it's so badly faded anyway. Before replacing all the old signs I just photographed, the DOT should replace its own facilities' signs.


Finally, the other direction - it's Region 1!


Morris-Sussex Tpk., old US 206, meets current 206 just on the east side of a railroad, so you get this stone underpass.


This tunnel through the Lackawanna Cutoff on US 206 is similar to one on Sussex CR 603 in the same area. The Cutoff is one of the great railroad engineering feats, built and cut across northern New Jersey to open in 1911, sometimes 50 feet above the rest of the land as here, other times soaring over viaducts. Part of the line is still in use today, but this overpass and others west of Hackettstown (again, such as the one on CR 603) are no more than an artificial ridge now. Thanks to NJSkylands.com and Robert Squadrito for this information.


SB on US 206, you can see the sidewalk follows the original alignment of CR 517, whereas the road now bends to come to a T instead of a slant.


A better view of the southbound hatched sign, and the corresponding northbound one at High St. (CR 606), which acts as intermediary between the acute directions of 206 and 517.


Spotted! Another rare leftover from the good olden days, and only the second one I've personally seen on a NJ state route (the other is on NJ 15, which coincidentally ends at US 206 just north of here). This one's in Newton's central square at the beginning of the NJ 94/CR 519 multiplex, which CR 519 soon leaves.


Pleasure overload in Newton, continuing east on Spring St. while following original US 206. My conjecture is that US 206 once followed Spring St. past the first sign (Union Pl. SB) to Sparta Ave. at the second sign (where CR 616 now begins) and back to Woodside Ave. These are state-spec guide signs so that routing and these destinations would make perfect sense together. In the second photo, the top sign was intended to keep US 206 NB traffic on the right track but has been partially turned so that it looks like it applies to Spring St. EB just as much as the lower signs.


The same intersection seen two different ways. First, it's not TO 94, it already is NJ 94 NB, but both NB and SB are to the left because it's a square. Second, US 206 needs a wide shield with SOUTH on top - and even in construction zones, shields aren't supposed to be orange.


The NB prelude to the end of the NJ 94 multiplex looks alright except for NJ 17A. Because there's only an NY 17A, I'm guessing all of these are supposed to have NY shields. The left-turn advance sign at NJ 15 could also use replacement, because that really isn't the right shield either, even though it tries to be.

CR 519 returns to cross US 206 in Branchville. These are NB.

Old SB LBS.


NB at Old Mine Road and the end of the CR 521 duplex, at US 206's northernmost intersection in NJ. These old signs are on both sides of the river, and thus probably are a product of DRJTBC - the ones on the PA side are even more interesting, so make sure to follow the link below to US 209. (DRJTBC = Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, which is different from the Delaware River Port Authority, which also maintains toll bridges across the Delaware between NJ and PA.) There's also one I'm not showing you on CR 521, so follow that link as well. And finally, click on this photo for a version with flash, just for kicks.

Southward to US 202/206
Southward past that to US 206 in Somerset County
Back to US 206 main page

Into Pennsylvania on US 206
Onto CR 513
Onto US 46
Onto I-80
Onto NJ 183
Into the International Trade Center
Onto CR 517
Onto NJ 94
Onto CR 519
To NJ 284
Onto CR 521
Proposed US 206 Sussex County freeway on Steve Anderson's nycroads.com
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