WB approaching the Wittpenn Bridge, a notoriously cantankerous old structure that will easily back rush hour traffic up a good hour for a ten-minute opening and has a special warning sign on US 1-9 Truck for when it's up. The matching Harsimus Branch Lift Bridge is paired to the left (south). NJ's old iron structures like this one will be around forever.


The EB approach, featuring the Harsimus Branch and the 1900 Pennsylvania Railroad bridge to the right that now carries PATH. NJ 7 and the Harsimus Branch both opened in 1930.


Continuing east across the bridge and approaching 1-9 Truck. I guess since Alternate routes became A, and Business sometimes has become B, maybe Truck can become T. But I don't like it, especially because you now have two numbers, a letter, and a symbol on the same sign. I'm still coming to terms with the ampersand on 1-9 shields, myself. That's US 1-9, the Pulaski Skyway, in the background, with a BGS for the ramp where 1-9 exit and leave NJ 139 to run toward the Holland Tunnel.


Assorted bridges to the north: the 1928 Lower Hack Lift (Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, now carrying the Morristown Line), the small but critical Portal Bridge (1910, carrying the Northeast Corridor and desperately in need of a wider replacement), and the NJ Turnpike Easterly Hackensack River Bridge over that.


EB approaching and then on the ramp for US 1-9 Truck SB. All of the BGS's for this new intersection push the limits of information, whether by having NORTH and SOUTH over separate arrows on the same sign, or putting TRUCK outside an ampersand shield (recent shields have dashes) when an adjacent shield has the T inside.


Looking north from the beginning of NJ 7 WB in 2011 as the new US 1-9 Truck viaduct takes shape. Years from now, NJ 7 will cross a new Wittpenn Bridge and tie directly into it.


Heading east past construction in 2014, the east approach is one girder shy of completion but also a few spans shy of tying into the new US 1/9 Truck loop. It will be interesting to see how NJDOT handles route numbers, since the future condition will have US 1/9 Truck as a trumpet into NJ 7. Will 1/9 Truck still extend northeast to 1/9, will that become part of 7, or will they multiplex and end concurrent?


Back west past the same empty piers to construction of the main span, to be floated in once the approaches are done. The 5th photo features a pedestrian stair tower at far left and even more missing girders on the pier next to it, since this is where the future EB ramp to US 1/9 Truck will take off in the path of current NJ 7.

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