Starting the road off wrong (in 2002), this should be North instead of East, courtesy Ray Martin.


Let's turn around and start over. Wait a minute, what's Freeway East? NJ 29 is north-south and it's more of a parkway than a freeway. US 1? I-95? NJ 29 to I-195, but several miles away? The world may never know, since this is also long gone and also courtesy Ray Martin.


Starting the road off right on our second try, just a few feet from NJ 29 heading north.


1970's? 1960's? signs on Lower Ferry Rd. NB.

NB.


Upper Ferry Rd. NB, pointing down CR 579 NB.


How cute, the big sign looks just like the little ones! It's actually a two-piece (left and right) sign, but my camera cleverly fuzzes that over. Has nothing to do with the weather.


SB, missing the word "Interstate" but also clearly a patch over something else. But what? The sign is too new to reflect the original NJ 129 in the 1960s, and it's too far west to have ever been for I-295.


No, CR 579 doesn't turn right. The shield should be on the left or just in a different location entirely.


This isn't the only warning you get that CR 579 turns left, but it's a cute reminder. CR 579 was just Bear Tavern Road, but jogged briefly along Jacobs Creek Road. Just around that corner...


Over Jacobs Creek on a ridiculously old (1880's) wood-deck steel truss bridge in Hopewell. That's the King Iron Bridge Co., and their website shows a couple of photos of it while under reconstruction, along with a similar bridge. Thanks to Charlotte Paisley for furnishing the photos to be found by clicking these five words. Poke around that site if bridges like this excite you.


Looking back south at the bridge, both before and after it was taken out. Sadly, there is nothing interesting to replace it.


In sympathy protest, the east wall to the north of the bridge is also crumbling.

This NB shield takes the cake - all three digits replaced!


All SB.


Passing a multiplex with NJ 31, this is NJ 179 and CR 579 NB and SB respectively. This sort of pairing happens a few other times (7/507, 27/527, 40/140/540) because the state highway and 5xx route numbering systems are laid out in a similar pattern (low numbers in the northeast, higher numbers in the southwest). But 179/579 bucks the trend in that neither route is numbered to fit into any sort of system. 579 just happened to be assigned after 577 and before 581, and 179 just happened to be assigned before 178 (reserved but unused) and 180 (now defunct). CR 579 is TO 31, not actually 31.


You can see that the problem is endemic to this area. This is CR 579 SB approaching NJ 179, courtesy Tim Reichard. CR 602 is Wertsville Rd., so that checks out, but there's a lot to junction here even without NJ 31 cluttering it up.


Wrong-way multiplex, wrong CR 579 shield.


Main St. WB in Bloomsbury ending at CR 579 on Church St.


Finishing the road off right, NB across the Musconetcong River to the end of CR 579.

Onto NJ 29
Onto I-95
To US 1
Onto CR 518
To NJ 31
Onto Wertsville Rd., CR 602
Onto NJ 179
Onto CR 523
Onto NJ 173
Into Mercer County
Into Hunterdon County
Back to New Jersey Roads
Back to Roads