New Jersey Roads - US 1 NB

US 1 NB



The first sign or two is probably technically in PA, above the Delaware River. The yellow square is for Waterfront Park, home of the Trenton Thunder (thanks, Matthew Burlew), while the TUNNEL signs refer to the new decked freeway that NJ 29 uses along the Trenton waterfront. The John Fitchway sign, courtesy Lou Corsaro, is the only reference I've seen that calls it that instead of the John Fitch Parkway. The Trenton Freeway, which begins here, was briefly intended to be I-95, but that was scrapped when planners realized there was no way to remotely fit the expected amount of traffic on a narrow four-lane freeway with no room to expand (and not nearly enough room for Interstate standards).


Here we have the same drive in video form, and continuing all the way through the meat of Trenton, albeit by cover of dark.


The beginning of NJ 33. Before the Trenton Freeway was built in 1951, when US 1 used what became Alternate 1 and now is nothing at all, 33 ended at the onetime 206/1 multiplex.


Still heading NB, first two courtesy Lou Corsaro - they're not button copy, unlike the other photos, but do show off the freeway. Signage up to US 206 has non-reflective background, perhaps dating from when the Trenton Freeway was extended beyond the US 206 exit (which is now the beginning of Business 1, and does indeed have access to US 206 SB). The exit immediately widens to a four-lane freeway that looks just like the rest of the freeway, before dropping down to a surface street and ending in a rotary.


New, nonstandard, ugly, and squareless (in the case of the US 1 shield) signage over the new C-D lane at the next interchange north of I-295/former I-95 (both routes ended at each other at US 1 until 2018).


Courtesy Lou Corsaro, these 2003 photos show the old signage, when there was only a C-D road on the SB side. Curses, NJDOT, you killed button copy!


This is a trumpet from the east, with an extra loop (NB-WB) built in - but no corresponding EB-NB loop for SB-NB U-turns. Parse those hyphens while I inform you the last two photos are left and right on the same gantry.


NJDOT used a bad material specification, or contractors used a bad supplier, for a lot of overhead signal signs in the mid-1990's (when they first started appearing). The last two signs are just north of CR 522.


The NB beginnings of both these routes, which run northward toward New Brunswick and then end. 91 actually enters New Brunswick, but doesn't do much. NJ 26 was the original designation (pre-1953) for US 1 from here south toward Trenton, with NJ 25 running north to Tonnele Circle (and then NJ 1 from there northward). Since 25 was built as a New Brunswick bypass to the east, when the Great Renumbering occurred, NJ 26 had a stub in New Brunswick, which is why the current route and number exist.


You don't often see these shields in the same place, but US 1 hits them right around their junction.


The US 1 NB ramp to US 130 SB and NJ 171 NB. The road underneath the colorful bridge is US 130 to US 1 NB/from US 1 SB, which means that until 171 begins at the far end of the bridge, 130 seems to exist on two levels.


These NJ 1 shields magically appeared for the first time in 57 years accompanying the reconstruction of the College Farm Rd. interchange to add service roads and connectivity across the highway. This was never NJ 1, though, which only overlapped US 1 north of Tonnele Circle. The first shield error I've seen for US 1 in NJ is peppered all over the service roads.


A passel of new signs magically appeared with 3-digit shields for I-95, and they aren't leaving anytime soon.

The graffiti was here for over a year, and may never be cleaned off.


The way NJ originally signed its NY crossings, black on white signs with stubby white on black-circle arrows, and still up in a lot of places.


One old street signs weathers the ages in Edison.


That should read SOUTH I-287/NORTH NJ 440, since it's impossible to go SOUTH on NJ 440 south of its southern end. Okay, so it's really west of its western end, but I'm going by signage here.


Shortly before the US 1/US 9 merge, US 1 forms the western boundary of that very complicated interchange I like to call The Tangle. The Parkway, CR 514, CR 501, I-287, or a few other roads will take you into the heart of it from US 1, and there are even more choices to take on the way out.

The NB Raritan River bridge
Over to the SB lanes
Northward to US 1-9
General US 1 photos
Back to US 1 main page


Onto NJ 29
Onto NJ 33
Onto US 206
Onto CR 533
Onto NJ 91
Onto NJ 26
Onto NJ 171
Onto US 130
Onto NJ 18
Onto I-287
Onto NJ 440
To I-95/NJ Turnpike
Onto CR 531
Onto the Garden State Parkway
Toward the Outerbridge Crossing, NJ 440
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