Dyl's Roads & Travels: Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike

Another road with a storied history in New Jersey. And just like the Newark-Pompton Turnpike, the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike serves as part of NJ 23 and its predecessor, NJSHR 8.

When the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike was first chartered in 1806, the road connected the two communities together and followed a northwest-southeast route. The turnpike was eventually extended to Deckertown (present-day Sussex) and then towards Milford, Pennsylvania in 1810.

A century later in 1916, the New Jersey State Highway system was born. One of the original routes was NJSHR 8, which strung together the Newark-Pompton Turnpike, this road, and the Coleville and Carpenter's Point Turnpike from Newark to High Point on top of New Jersey (pun intended). NJSHR 8 followed the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike from Sussex to Pompton Township (present-day Riverdale).

In the 1927 highway renumbering, NJSHR 8 became NJH 23. The westernmost stretch of the Turnpike from Sussex to the Delaware River did not get a state highway number. The eastern stretch of the Turnpike from Paterson to Pompton Lakes/Riverdale became part of NJH 3, a highway stretching from Secaucus to Greenwood Lake. NJH 3 was planned to be truncated to Paterson with the construction of a freeway to Greenwood Lake known as NJH S4B. The corridor of NJH S4B was only partially realized, with the freeway to Greenwood Lake never being built. (Spoiler alert: NJH S4B turned into NJ 208)

In the 1953 highway renumbering, NJH 23 retained its number to become NJ 23. NJH 3 was removed from the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike when the route was redefined to its present-day definition, the NJ 3 freeway.

From the birth of NJ 23 as NJH 23, many changes would be made. NJ 23 was upgraded to a high-speed roadway, and bypasses of both the Newark-Pompton Turnpike and Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike were built. This means NJ 23 no longer reaches the junction of the two turnpikes and only joins the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike northwest of Butler. County route designations would be established, and US 202 would follow a segment of the Turnpike.

In the present day, the majority of the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike is NJ 23. West of Sussex, the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike was renamed the Deckertown Turnpike and given the Sussex CR 650 designation. And just west of Butler/Bloomingdale, the Paterson-Hambirg Turnpike leaves the NJ 23 corridor for good. The Turnpike is known as Morris/Passaic CR 694, CR 511, CR 511 Alternate, Passaic CR 689, US 202, and CR 504 until Paterson.

This page documents alignments of the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike that were bypassed by modern NJ 23, as well as segments independent of NJ 23.