Route of The Lincoln Highway - New Jersey

New Jersey

The original route of Lincoln Highway came off the New York Central Railroad's ferry at Weehawken Terminal and climbed the Palisades on Pershing Road. At the top it went west on 5th Street (now 49th Street) to the Hudson County Boulevard (now John F. Kennedy Boulevard) on which it travelled south to Communipaw Avenue in Jersey City. After the opening of the Holland Tunnel and part of the Route 1 Extension, the Lincoln Highway travelled along the upper level of what is known as State Highway to the Boulevard.

Veering west it crossed the Hackensack River and Kearny Point on what is now U.S. Route 1-9 Truck and where the road is still known as Lincoln Highway. Some sources indicate the Highway bypassing the corner of Hudson County Boulevard and Communipaw Avenue by passing through Lincoln Park, which had been the route of Newark Plank Road.

Crossing the Passaic River, the Highway entered the Ironbound district of Newark along Ferry Street and Market Street, now the eastbound side of a one-way pair with Raymond Boulevard. In downtown Newark at Four Corners, it turned south on Broad Street, at what was claimed to be the "third busiest traffic center in the United States". By 1924 this had been bypassed using Jackson and Lafayette Streets. From Broad Street, the Highway cut over to Frelinghuysen Avenue, possibly on Clinton Avenue or Poinier Street, or via Elizabeth Avenue and Meeker Avenue.

After construction of the Holland Tunnel the ferry portion was abandoned and traffic travelled over Bergen Hill to connect with Hudson Boulevard. A reroute in 1928 took the Lincoln Highway onto the new Route 1 Extension (now U.S. Route 1/9) from east of downtown Newark to North Avenue in Elizabeth, and west on North Avenue back to the old road. The Highway was also moved to the new Holland Tunnel and approach east of the Hudson County Boulevard (now Route 139). By then the U.S. Highway System was marked, and the Lincoln Highway was fading in importance.

From the corner of Frelinghuysen Avenue and Poinier Street in Newark to Brunswick Circle in Trenton, the Lincoln Highway followed today's Route 27 and U.S. Route 206. Many parts are still known as Lincoln Highway. The only changes have been the following:

• The original road may have followed Clinton Avenue to Elizabeth Avenue in Newark and North Broad Street in Elizabeth.
• Route 27 now has a one-way pair in Elizabeth. The northbound side, on Cherry Street, is the old Lincoln Highway.
• In 1919, the New Jersey State Highway Commission built a new road on the west side of the Pennsylvania Railroad (now the Northeast Corridor) from near the northeast of Dow Avenue between Colonia and Iselin to Cedar Street in Menlo Park, to avoid two railroad crossings. The old road is now Middlesex-Essex Turnpike and Thornall Street, on the east side of the tracks. A 1905 map shows the main road using Thornall Street all the way to its end at Evergreen Road and crossing the tracks there, with the road on the west side existing north to Cedar Street as a stub; this may have changed between then and 1919. However, until 1919, the main road used Colonia Boulevard, New Dover Road and Middlesex Avenue to get from Rahway to Green Street.
• Until 1919, the main road was what is now named Old Road, lying east of the current road north of Kingston.
• The old bridge over the Millstone River at Kingston still exists, south of the current bridge (built in 1969).

The Lincoln Highway entered Trenton along Brunswick Avenue, now northbound US 206 and BUS US 1. Until 1920 the Highway used the Calhoun Street Bridge over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania; a 1920 map indicates that it probably used Warren Street (now southbound US 206 and BUS US 1) and West State Street to reach the bridge. In 1920 the Highway was moved from the tolled Calhoun Street Bridge to the free Bridge Street Bridge. To get there it probably continued south on Warren Street, turning west on Bridge Street to the bridge. This path is now followed by southbound BUS US 1, with a realignment from Assunpink Creek to the bridge due to redevelopment.

In 1916, the Lincoln Highway was designated the following State Highway numbers:

• Route 1 from Elizabeth to New Brunswick
• Route 13 from New Brunswick to Trenton

The Highway in Trenton, and in and north of Elizabeth, did not receive a number.

In 1927, the whole Lincoln Highway in New Jersey was assigned the number U.S. Route 1, though that number was soon moved to newer bypasses.

The Route 1 Extension, built in the late 1920s, was considered a bypass of the Lincoln Highway, but the old road has continued to be known as the Lincoln Highway, except possibly between Communipaw Avenue and Tonnelle Circle in Jersey City, where the name may have moved to the new road (now TRUCK US 1–9).