Camp Merritt Memorial Circle

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The Camp Merritt Memorial Circle is a traffic circle in Cresskill, New Jersey at the intersection of Madison Avenue and Knickerbocker Road (CR 505).

Cresskill was the home of Camp Merritt, the major debarkation point for American troops being sent abroad to fight in World War I. A large obelisk memorial, set in the middle of the traffic circle commemorates this fact.

General John Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Force, headed the list of dignitaries who participated in the dedication of the Camp Merritt Monument on Memorial Day, May 30, 1924. The 66 foot tall (20 meter) obelisk, constructed of Stony Creek granite by the Harrison Granite Company, is inscribed with the names of 15 officers, 558 enlisted men, four nurses and one civilian, who died at Camp Merritt during the war. An inscription on the south side states that the obelisk "marks the centre of the camp and faces the highway over which more than a million American soldiers passed on their way to and from the World War, 1917-1919"^[1].