New Jersey Route 163 - History

History

New Jersey Route 163 originated as an alignment of U.S. Route 46 (co-signed with New Jersey State Highway Route 6). The alignment of 6 and 46 went along the alignment of the original State Highway Route 5 from the early 1920s, stretching from Newark to the bridge over the Delaware River at Delaware. The route was decommissioned when the 1927 renumbering occurred. After that renumbering, the route became State Highway Route 6, a co-designation to U.S. Route 46, which had been assigned the prior year. The two highway designations remained intact until the 1953 renumbering, when Route 6 was decommissioned in favor of using the U.S. 46 designation. U.S. Route 46 was realigned once again when the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge opened in 1953, when the alignment of the highway was changed to head along former State Highway Route 8 (mostly New Jersey Route 94), where it ended at U.S. Route 611 and NJ 94, where its current terminus is located. After the realigning of the Delaware Bridge alignment, the route was renumbered to New Jersey Route 163. Two years later, the Delaware Bridge was swept away in floods caused by Hurricane Connie and Diane in 1955, which took out several other bridges over the Delaware.