New Jersey Route 19

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Route 19

Paterson Peripheral

Length:

3.04 mi (4.89 km)

Formed:

1967

South end:

GSP in Clifton

Major
junctions:

US 46 in Clifton

I-80 in Paterson

North end:

Main St. in Paterson

New Jersey State Highway Routes
< NJ 18N		NJ 20 >

Route 19 is a freeway-standard state highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It runs from a complicated interchange with US 46 and the Garden State Parkway in Clifton, past an interchange with I-80, to Main Street (unsigned CR 509) in downtown Paterson, with the Inner Loop Road continuing straight. Its main purpose is to connect the Parkway to I-80 and downtown Paterson. The south end of the road is just south of the US 46 overpass, with Broad Street (CR 509) continuing south.

Proposed Route 20 belt freeway which became Route 19

[edit] History

What is now Route 19 was once planned as the Paterson spur of the Garden State Parkway. In addition, NJDOT planned an extension of Route 20 around the west side of Paterson, which was to connect to the spur at I-80. The Parkway only built the first bit of the spur, connecting to Broad Street, and NJDOT decided to build the rest and extend the Route 20 designation along it.

The Parkway spur, connecting the Parkway to Broad Street, opened on January 4, 1955 along with the adjacent Parkway section. The exit from the spur to Broad Street (onto which traffic was forced) was numbered exit 155P; this number has since been shifted to the mainline exit for Route 19.

The extension to Route 20 was stopped because of the designation of Great Falls ("Society of Useful Manufacturers") Historic District, a historic resource of national significance in the path of the proposed alignment. Paterson, one of the most vibrant manufacturing centers in the early years of the Industrial Revolution of the mid-1800's, had for many years fallen into decline. The Great Falls historic designation was planned as part of an urban revitalization project.

Another plan would carry the route north from Paterson into Glen Rock, New Jersey, then east toward Oradell, New Jersey and Alpine, New Jersey. From Alpine, there was to be a new Hudson River bridge to Westchester County, New York, with the eastern approach in Yonkers, New York. The proposed route was to link with the Cross County Parkway, which was to be upgraded to an expressway that would permit its use by trucks and buses.

The road was built to I-80. By 1988, the plan to connect the road to Route 20 was cancelled, and on January 5, 1988 it was renumbered to Route 19. The unconnected ramps at I-80 were connected to a new road into downtown Paterson.