New Jersey Route 21 - History

History

Route 21 was first defined in the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering to run from Route 25 (now U.S. Route 1/9) and Route 29 (now U.S. Route 22) in Newark north to Belleville. The surface portion of Route 21 in Newark, which follows the Northeast Corridor rail line, was commissioned in 1934 between Routes 25 and 29 and Market Street and the portion through downtown Newark was commissioned in 1936 between Market Street and Clay Street. In 1948, the Route 21 designation was extended north to Paterson.

Plans for a freeway along the Route 21 corridor between Newark and Paterson date back to the early 1930s and became official in 1951. In 1958, the highway was extended northward as a freeway along the west bank of the Passaic River to an interchange with Park Avenue in Nutley. Route 21 was extended to the Passaic Park interchange in 1962, Main Avenue in 1968, and Monroe Street in 1973. With the completion of the freeway, a portion of the former route was briefly known as Route 21A.

The Route 21 freeway was planned to extend north to Interstate 80 in Elmwood Park at the interchange with County Route 507, crossing over the Passaic River. However, this extension was opposed by residents who lived on the east side of the Passaic River, and for a quarter-century, traffic headed for Paterson had to use local streets in Passaic. In the 1980s, plans were resurrected for completing the Route 21 freeway along the west bank of the Passaic River to U.S. Route 46 in Clifton. Official plans were made in 1996, and in late 1997, construction began on this portion of the freeway. It opened on December 20, 2000 at a cost of $136 million.

Sections of Route 21 through Newark were improved in the 1990s and the 2000s. The four-lane viaduct over the Northeast Corridor, which was built in the 1920s, was replaced between 1997 and 2003 at a cost of $253 million.