Highways of Passaic County, New Jersey

NJ 7 in Hudson County is the Belleville Turnpike, which split off from the Newark Turnpike out in the meadows. Today’s NJ 7 begins at the Charlotte Circle interchange with US 1/9 TRUCK in Jersey City and heads west (although the road is inventoried south to north, it has a sizable westerly component and some of the cardinal markers read east and west). Once it reaches North Arlington, it climbs a short, steep, winding hill to get to Schuyler Avenue and then crosses “Arlington” (an area that encompasses the northern part of Kearny and the southern part of North Arlington) on a bee line until it reaches the Passaic River – where it stops.

That’s right, it stops. While signs continue to mark NJ 7 on Rutgers Street in Belleville, that section of road is not part of NJ 7; instead, it’s merely CR 506, which used to be co-signed with NJ 7 along the Belleville Pike but is no longer. The second part of NJ 7, which touches Passaic County, runs along Washington Avenue in Belleville and Nutley, starting from the Second River on the Newark city line, and then turns left on Kingsland Road in Clifton. That stretch of highway cuts back into Nutley, and then ends at the Passaic County line where Cathedral Avenue in Nutley becomes Passaic Street in Clifton – again, inexplicably short of NJ 3.

I have not yet met anyone who can explain why NJ 7 is as crazy as it is. However, I can tell you that prior to the 1953 state highway renumbering, the Essex County portion of NJ 7 used to continue southward, down Broadway in Newark, to its intersection with Bloomfield Avenue, then part of NJ 23, now NJ S-506. And I have several maps that indicate a Passaic County continuation of NJ 7, up Passaic Street and then left on Main Avenue to old NJ S-6 (which ran through Paterson before the completion of today’s US 46).

In addition, prior to 1953 the Belleville Turnpike may – or may not – have been designated NJ 9. The number definitely applied to today’s CR 506 between NJ 6 in Pine Brook and NJ 7 in Belleville, and some (but not all) old maps show NJ 9 continuing across Arlington and through the meadows. The NJ 9 designation was discarded in the 1953 renumbering, at which time numbers that duplicated US highway numbers were discarded. All that makes sense. I simply cannot explain why the state never commissioned (or re-commissioned) the short stretches of Rutgers Street and Passaic Street that would logically complete NJ 7.

In keeping with the Passaic County focus of this site, only the very brief section of NJ 7 in Clifton is listed. The mile markers begin from 6.05, which is the mileage assigned to the beginning of the section primarily in Essex County.

Mile Street Name Feature (South to North)

9.24 Entering Clifton City, Passaic Co.

9.25 Washington Ave Kingsland Rd, [CR 606] {signal}

9.25 NJ 7 turns left onto Kingsland Rd

9.25 Kingsland Rd [Shopping center entrance] {signal}

9.40 Kingsland Rd Yantacaw Pond Brook {bridge}

9.42 Entering Nutley Town, Essex Co.

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Mile	Street Name	Feature (South to North)
9.24	Entering Clifton City, Passaic Co.
9.25	Washington Ave	Kingsland Rd, [CR 606] {signal}
9.25	NJ 7 turns left onto Kingsland Rd
9.25	Kingsland Rd	[Shopping center entrance] {signal}
9.40	Kingsland Rd	Yantacaw Pond Brook {bridge}
9.42	Entering Nutley Town, Essex Co.