U.S. Route 9 in New Jersey - History

History

What would become US 9 was legislated as part of several state routes in the 1910s and 1920s. Between Cape May and Seaville, the road was legislated as part of pre-1927 Route 14 in 1917. Pre-1927 Route 19 was designated to run along the current route between Seaville and Absecon, but was never built. From Absecon north to Lakewood, and from South Amboy to Rahway, pre-1927 Route 4 was designated in 1916 along the current route. Between Lakewood and Freehold, a spur of pre-1927 Route 7, created in 1925, was to run on the present US 9 alignment. Between Rahway and Elizabeth, pre-1927 Route 1 was created in 1916; an extension north to the Holland Tunnel was planned in 1922. When the U.S. Highway System was created in 1926, US 9 was designated in New Jersey to run from US 30 in Absecon north to the New York border in Alpine, where it continued into New York as US 9W. In New Jersey, the route followed the entirety of pre-1927 Route 4 between Absecon and Rahway, bending farther to the east of its current alignment between Lakewood and South Amboy by running closer to the Atlantic Ocean. In Rahway, US 9 joined US 1 and pre-1927 Route 1 for a concurrency north toward Newark. Past Newark, the road followed current US 1/9 Truck toward Jersey City, where US 1 and US 9 split. At this point, US 9 continued north on its current alignment in Fort Lee, where it then ran north on present-day CR 501 toward the New York border. US 9 was designated along this alignment to the New York border as the original numbering plans called for it to continue up the west bank of the Hudson River to Albany, New York, with US 109 running along the east bank of the river. However, it was instead split into two suffixed routes in New York, with US 9W running along the west bank and US 9E running along the east bank, New Jersey had kept its alignment of US 9 to US 9W at the border in Alpine.

In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, the present-day routing of US 9 between Cape May and Woodbridge became part of Route 4, while the portion along the US 1/9 concurrency south of the Tonnele Circle became part of Route 25 and north of there to the George Washington Bridge became Route 1 and Route 6. Meanwhile, what had been signed as US 9 at the time was Route 4 from Absecon to Lakewood, Route 35 between Lakewood and Belmar and Eatontown and South Amboy (now Route 88 between Lakewood and Point Pleasant), Route 4N (now Route 71) between Belmar and Eatontown, Route 4 (now Route 35) between South Amboy and Rahway, Route 27 between Rahway and Newark, Route 25 between Newark and Jersey City, and Route 1 north of Jersey City. After the Pulaski Skyway opened in 1932, US 9, along with US 1 and Route 25, was routed onto it. By the 1940s, US 9 was extended south along Route 4 to Cape May, with the small southern piece leading to US 30 in Absecon becoming an unnumbered road that is now Route 157. In addition, US 9 was its current routing between South Amboy and the George Washington Bridge. By 1947, US 9 and Route 4 were moved to a new alignment between Freehold and Old Bridge Township, with the old alignment becoming Route 4A (now Route 79 and a part of Route 34).

In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, the state highways running concurrent with US 9 were removed. In addition, US 1/9 Truck was created as a truck bypass of the Pulaski Skyway, replacing Route 25T, and US 1/9 Business (now Route 139) was signed along the former Route 25 approach to the Holland Tunnel. After the Garden State Parkway was completed through the Toms River area in 1954, US 9 was moved to it to bypass the center of the community and the former route became US 9 Alternate (now Route 166). Also in 1954, a new bridge for the Garden State Parkway was built over the Mullica River at the site of the US 9 bridge; the old bridge carrying US 9 was dismantled, and the route was designated to follow the Garden State Parkway over the Mullica River from two interchanges. The approaches to the former bridge became Route 167. In the mid-1960s, a limited-access toll road called the Garden State Thruway was planned along the US 9 alignment between Toms River and Woodbridge. This freeway was intended to serve all vehicles and provide a shortcut to the Garden State Parkway and US 9 through central New Jersey but was never built. In the early 1970s, another plan surfaced for a US 9 freeway from Route 34 in Madison Township (now Old Bridge Township) north to Route 35 in Sayreville. The freeway, which was to cost $17 million, was not built due to financial problems. A freeway was also proposed for US 9 in Atlantic County in the late 1960s, running from the proposed Route 60 freeway in Somers Point to CR 575 in Smithville. This freeway, which was to cost $35 million and intended to alleviate traffic on the current US 9 and the Garden State Parkway, was also never built due to financial and environmental issues.

In the 1970s, US 9 was rerouted to the Cape-May Lewes Ferry terminal in North Cape May to continue south to US 13 in Laurel, Delaware, with the former route into Cape May becoming Route 109. In 2001, a new span was added to the Edison Bridge over the Raritan River in a $60 million project. The Victory Circle at the north end of the Route 35 concurrency in Sayreville was replaced with an interchange between 2003 and 2006. The Beesley's Point Bridge over the Great Egg Harbor was closed to traffic in 2004 because of a crumbling deck, with the bridge owner, the Beesley’s Point Bridge Company, unable to fund repairs. US 9 is currently detoured around the closure on the Garden State Parkway. In 2008, Cape May County acquired the bridge from the Beesley’s Point Bridge Company and planned to restore it by 2012, with an estimated cost of $20 million. However, the Beesley's Point Bridge is now planned to be demolished in 2013 as part of a project that will also replace the Great Egg Harbor Bridge. As of 2011, a $588 million project for expansion of the 7.2-mile (11.59 km) segment of Route 9 in the towns was in a "design concept" phase with funding earmarked for 2016-2017 construction.

The segment of US 9 in New Jersey was mentioned in the Bruce Springsteen song Born to Run in the lines "Sprung from cages on Highway 9 / Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin' out over the line."