U.S. Highway 46

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U.S. Highway 46

U.S. Highway 46 (typically called Route 46) is an east-west U.S. Highway, running 75.34 miles (121.25 km), completely within the state of New Jersey. With its west end at Columbia on the Delaware River, and its east end in the middle of the George Washington Bridge, its use for through traffic has been superceded by Interstate 80, but it is still a major local and suburban route, with some sections built to or near freeway standards and many other sections arterials with jughandles. The road has been ceremonially named the United Spanish War Veterans Memorial Highway.

Contents

Termini

As of 2005, the eastern terminus of US 46 is in Fort Lee, New Jersey, at the New York State and New York City border in the middle of the George Washington Bridge, where it is concurrent with I-95, US 1 and US 9 (which all continue into New York). Its western terminus is in Knowlton Township, New Jersey at an interchange with I-80 and Route 94.

Signage indicates that the eastern terminus is just west of the bridge, where US 46 (concurrent with US 1 and US 9) merges with I-95 (the south end of US 9W), and a few recent signs even show it beginning where it joins US 1-9, several miles further west. But the NJDOT straight line diagrams have always taken it to the middle of the bridge. When US 46 was commissioned in 1936, its full length was already Route 6; rather than end US 46 where US 1-9 merged onto the road, it was taken all the way to the end of 6 at the state line.

History

Routes 5, 10 and 12: 1916-1927

The general path that would become US 46 was defined in 1916 as three routes:

The routes mainly used existing roads. Route 5 began by crossing the Delaware River from Pennsylvania at Delaware. Several undercrossings of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad near Delaware were bypassed with a short new road on the southwest side of the railroad. From there Route 5 used the existing Delaware Road to north of Belvidere, then the Buttzville-Belvidere Road to Buttzville, the Buttzville Road to Great Meadows, and the Danville Mountain Road to Hackettstown.

From Hackettstown to Denville Routes 5 and 12 ran concurrently. A mostly-new road (now eastbound US 46) was built from Hackettstown east to Netcong to avoid steep grades on the existing roads. Postions of the existing Budd's Lake Road were used between Budd Lake and Netcong. From Netcong the route used the old Morris Turnpike to Ledgewood and the Dover Turnpike to Dover, running into Dover on Blackwell Street. Blackwell Street led to Rockaway Road, becoming Main Street in Rockaway, from which it used the old Parsippany and Rockaway Turnpike to Denville.

At Denville, Route 5 turned south, while Route 12 continued east along the Parsippany and Rockaway Turnpike to Pine Brook. The route left the old turnpike there to head northeast towards Paterson, starting with the Pine Brook Road (now Fairfield Road and Little Falls Road) to Little Falls. A bypass was planned around the south side Little Falls, taking it under the New York and Greenwood Lake Railway at Union Boulevard. From there Route 12 would use Union Boulevard, Totowa Road and McBride Avenue into Paterson. Route 10 continued east on Market Street on the other side of Paterson to Edgewater.

The new alignments were generally built as planned, except at Little Falls. Around 1927 Little Falls was bypassed, but to the north, splitting from the Pine Brook Road (Fairfield Road) near Two Bridges Road and running east to Union Boulevard northeast of Little Falls. The new road between Hackettstown and Netcong was built ca. 1923, and the new road at Delaware ca. 1925.

Route 6: 1927-1953

In the 1927 renumbering, Route 6 was assigned to the route across northern New Jersey, using the old Route 5 from Delaware to Netcong, Route 12 from Hackettstown to Paterson, and a generally new alignment parallel to Route 10 from Paterson to the proposed George Washington Bridge (old Route 10 became Route 5). In Paterson, Route 6 was marked along McBride Avenue, Spruce Street and Market Street.

Route 6 was redefined in 1929 to use none of the old road east of Paterson (it had formerly been planned to use Market Street west of roughly where Route 17 now crosses it), and Route 5 was cut back to run only east from Ridgefield. More importantly, Route 6 was redefined to bypass Paterson to the south. The new route would enter Paterson just south of Market Street, but then turn south and southwest before heading back west to rejoin the old route at the east end of the Little Falls bypass (the Union Boulevard crossing). The old road along Union Boulevard towards Paterson was assigned Route S6, as a spur of Route 6. (Route S6 became Route 62 in the 1953 renumbering, and has since been truncated to a short piece between US 46 and I-80.)

Around 1929, a new alignment was built from west of downtown Dover east to the Rockaway/Denville border, bypassing downtown Rockaway to the south.

The first section opened east of Paterson was west from the George Washington Bridge. When the bridge opened in late 1931, Route 6 had been completed into Palisades Park. An extension into Ridgefield Park came soon after; the whole road from the bridge to Ridgefield Park was built to near-freeway standards. Around 1935 Route 6 was completed to Route 2 (now Route 17), with traffic signals at most major intersctions. The rest of the road west to Route 3/Route 4 (now Route 20 was completed by 1941, again as a mostly surface road. By 1950 the bypass of Paterson was open; the majority of this was built with no cross traffic but frequent intersections with side streets.

A realignment at the Passaic River crossing near Pine Brook was built ca. 1940, along with a new road for a short distance west from Pine Brook; the old road at the river became Route 6M (renumbered Route 159 in 1953). Around the same time, the road was widened west into Denville, and a bypass of downtown Denville, including an interchange at Route 5N (now Route 53) was built. In the early 1950s, the old Little Falls bypass was rebuilt with interchanges, and a new alignment was built from its west end to the east end of the 1940 alignment at Pine Brook, removing the last at-grade intersection (other than the traffic circle at Route 23) between Clifton and the Pine Brook area.

Route 6 was decommissioned in favor of U.S. Route 46 in the 1953 renumbering.

US 46: 1936-present

U.S. Route 46 was marked in 1936. At the time, the new Route 6 had not been completed from Route 2 (now Route 17) west to Route S6 (now Route 62), and so US 46 was marked north on Route 2 to Market Street and then west on Market Street into Paterson, then through Paterson on the original Route 6 (officially S6 west of Paterson). When the route east of Paterson opened, US 46 (and Route 6) was marked north on Route 3/Route 4 (now Route 20) to Market Street until the full bypass was completed.

At the west end of Route 6, US 46 continued over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania, running along PA 987 to Portland. At Portland it was signed along US 611 northwest to Stroudsburg, where it ended at US 209. At the beginning of 1953, the 1953 renumbering removed the whole of Route 6, leaving the highway to be officially designated as U.S. Route 46. The Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge and its associated freeway to Columbia (now Interstate 80) opened in late 1953, as did the new Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge. At that time US 611 was rerouted to cross the river twice in order to use the better-quality road through the Delaware Water Gap, and US 46 was moved to former Route 94 (pre-1953 Route 8) to end at the Columbia, New Jersey side of the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge. (The old New Jersey-side Delaware Bridge approach became Route 163 then.)

The US 611 freeway was designated I-80 in 1959, and US 611 was moved back to its old all-Pennsylvania alignment in 1965, leaving US 46 to end at I-80. When I-80 was built east of Columbia in 1973, US 46 was extended slightly west along the old freeway through Columbia, as the new alignment of I-80 left the old freeway about 1/2 mile (1 km) west of the bridge.

References


Primary U.S. Highways
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 48 49
50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59
60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69
70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79
80 81 82 83 84 85 87 89
90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99
101 163 400 412 425
Lists
U.S. Highways - Bannered U.S. Highways
New Jersey State Routes
Preceded by:
45
(46)
US 46 Succeeded by:
47
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