New Jersey Route 5 - History

History

Pre-1927 Route 10 was legislated in 1916 to run from Paterson east by way of Hackensack and Ridgefield to the Public Service Railway's Fort Lee Ferry at Edgewater. From Paterson it used the existing Paterson and Hackensack Turnpike (Market Street and Essex Street) to Hackensack and the Bergen Turnpike (Hudson Street) to Ridgefield. Rather than use existing roads from Ridgefield down the Palisades to Edgewater, a whole new route was surveyed with better grades. This road was built by 1922. At its east end, Route 10 ran south several blocks on River Road to the ferry, just south of Dempsey Avenue. In Ridgefield, Broad Avenue was used to get between the new alignment and Bergen Turnpike.

In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 10 was renumbered to Route 5. Plans at the time were to build a new alignment from east of Ridgefield to Little Ferry southeast of Hackensack and form Route S5 (now Route 93) along the old road from Little Ferry to Ridgefield. The new Route 6 would share the alignment of Route 5 from Paterson to west of Hackensack, where it would turn southeast onto a new alignment to Little Ferry, then run with Route 5 again to east of Ridgefield and split onto its own alignment to the George Washington Bridge.

In 1929, the routes were redefined. Route 6 would be a completely new alignment from Paterson to the George Washington Bridge, and Route 5 would only run east from Route 1 (Broad Avenue, now U.S. Route 1/9) in Ridgefield. The alignment of Route 10 west of Ridgefield was designated Route 10N until it was eventually turned over to the county. Route 5 retained its routing in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering. By the 2000s, the section of Route 5 along River Road to the former ferry was removed. In June 2007, construction began on a $24.6 million project to improve the route through Palisades Park. This project, which is to be completed later in 2009, will involve the replacement of the bridge over Delia Avenue, the removal of a bridge over an abandoned rail line, and the widening of the two-lane road to include a shoulder.