U.S. Route 46

U.S. 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Delaware River, and its east end in the middle of the George Washington Bridge, its use for through traffic has been superseded by Interstate 80, but it is still a major local and suburban route, with some sections built to or near freeway standards and many other sections arterials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.

Route description

Map of U.S. Route 46

Today, US Route 46 begins at a complex interchange of the southern end of Route 94, Interstate 80, the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge leading to Pennsylvania Route 611 in Columbia, New Jersey. It begins as a four-lane freeway, but undivides and becomes a two-lane road shortly after the exit to the toll bridge into Pennsylvania. The road then bypasses the town of Belvidere and has a few businesses on it. For a couple miles the road becomes a four-lane divided highway but then returns to being a two lane road.

The road stays rural until it gets through Independence Township and enters Hackettstown. At this point, County Route 517 runs concurrent for about a mile. When County Route 517 turns off to the right along with Route 182, Route 46 then crosses out of Hackettstown into Morris County into Washington Township.

About a mile into Morris County, Route 46 divides and becomes a four lane highway onto a mountain. It then enters Mount Olive Township, and at this point the road undivides but stays four lanes. Businesses line the road as it goes through Budd Lake. It then crosses Interstate 80 again and becomes a two lane road again entering Netcong. At this point it crosses New Jersey Route 183 (the former stretch of US 206) in a circle. The road then becomes a four lane road and crosses Interstate 80 again entering Roxbury Township / Ledgewood.

Then in a three-way intersection which was formerly a circle, Route 10 begins straight while US 46 turns left. At this point, it alternates between two and three and four lanes and undivided. It then enters Kenvil, Mine Hill Township and then Wharton at its southern tip.

Route 46 then enters downtown Dover and then Rockaway Township and then Rockaway Borough. At this point, businesses line the road. The road also stays undivided with two to four lanes. The route then enters Denville and has a limited interchange with Interstate 80 (where it can only be entered to and from the westbound lane and where 46 east can only be entered from the eastbound lane and to the eastbound lane). As it underpasses Route 80, Route 46 then becomes a divided four lane highway which it stays until it ends.

The road is lined with moderate amounts of businesses as it enters Mountain Lakes, then Parsippany-Troy Hills. In Parsippany, Route 46 has easy access to Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 202. Route 46 does underpass interstate 80 with a limited interchange on the eastern border of Parsippany/Troy Hills. Route 46 then enters Montville Township. Businesses still line the road. Right before the Morris/Essex County line, Route 159 / Bloomfield Avenue splits off to the south-east (the road becomes County Route 506, while Route 159 winds north and crosses and ends at Route 46 in Essex County just a mile later).

US Route 46 then enters Essex County into Fairfield Township, where business continue to line the road. Several miles later a complex interchange occurs with limited access to interstate route 80 but full access to Route 23. At this point, Route 46 enters Wayne in Passaic County. On the eastbound lane is the Willowbrook Mall. This complex interchange at one time was a circle with Route 23 crossing it.

Route 46 continues into Totowa, Little Falls and along the West Paterson border, where businesses and many shopping centers line both sides of the route. As the route enters Clifton, Route 3 begins to the south-east as a freeway. US 46 continues as a limited access divided highway with some businesses still on it, though roads are accessed through over and underpasses. The route crosses Route 19 and Route 20 near Passaic.

At this point, Route 46 enters Bergen County in Elmwood Park and then Saddle Brook and Lodi. The road then goes through Garfield and Hasbrouck Heights, where it has an interchange with Route 17 and its last entrance onto interstate 80.

From Hasbrouck Heights, Route 46 becomes a freeway through Little Ferry, Ridgefield Park, and Palisades Park. At this point, Route 46 ends as a stand-alone route and joins with U.S. Route 1/9. Route 46 then runs as a freeway (but not of interstate highway standards) concurrent to Routes 1 and 9. In Fort Lee, signs indicate that Route 46 ends at the interchange with Route 4 and Interstate 95, but it technically continues on the George Washington Bridge concurrent with Interstate 95, US 1 and US 9 where it ends at the New York / New Jersey state line.

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 Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1/9 (which all continue into New York). Its western terminus is in Knowlton Township, New Jersey at an interchange with Interstate 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 U.S. Route 9W), and a few recent signs even show it beginning where it joins US 1-9, several miles further west. But the New Jersey Department of Transportation straight line diagrams have always taken it to the middle of the bridge. When US 46 was commissioned in 1935, 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:
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Route 5, beginning at the Delaware Bridge over the Delaware River and running east via Buttzville, Hackettstown, Netcong and Dover to Denville, then turning south to Morristown and east to Newark ''Further information: Route 5N between Denville and Morristown and Route 24 between Morristown and Newark
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Route 12, beginning at Phillipsburg and running northeast via Washington at Hackettstown, then east along Route 5 to Denville, and continuing east via Pine Brook and Little Falls to PatersonFurther information: Route 24 between Phillipsburg and Hackettstown
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Route 10, running from Paterson east via Hackensack to the Fort Lee Ferry at Edgewater

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. Positions 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 of 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, by a new road - Pellington Boulevard - 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.

U.S. Route 46: 1935-present

U.S. Route 46 was marked in 1935. 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 Pennsylvania Route 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, and the Pennsylvania side became an unnumbered (to the public) state highway.)

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.

Historical note: In 1925, the US 46 designation was proposed for a Limon, Colorado-Grand Junction, Colorado route, but it instead became U.S. Highway 40S.

External links

U.S. Route 46: Encyclopedia BETA

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