NJ 25AD (cutout)

Route 158 (also known as the Centre Street Bridge) was a short state highway in Newark and Harrison, New Jersey, in the counties of Essex and Hudson, which are located in the United States. The Centre Street Bridge was first constructed in 1834 as a single-level railroad bridge. However, in 1911, almost eight decades later, a second, upper level was constructed for rapid transit. In 1937, the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, now part of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson line, was realigned onto railroad tracks along New Jersey Route 21. The upper level of the bridge was abandoned for this purpose, and was later converted to roadway. At the western end in Newark it ran just south of Park Place, beginning at Center Street. The route headed eastward, crossing over Route 21 and the Passaic River before entering Harrison, where it terminated at Second Street north of New Jersey Railroad Avenue.

Eventually, the upper level roadway was designated by the New Jersey State Highway Department as Route 25AD. A spur of the recently designated State Highway Route 25A, the highway department made the roadway a suffixed spur of the highway because of the close proximity. Route 25A later became New Jersey Route 58 and is now an alignment of Interstate 280. The designation remained intact until the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering on January 1, 1953, when it was changed to New Jersey Route 158. Route 158 appeared on the state map for New Jersey until up to 1960, when it disappeared from the maps as a public highway. After 1960, Route 158 did not appear on maps, and the bridge was torn down around 1979.

Route description

Route 158 began at an intersection with Park Place and Center Street ( County Route 508) in the city of Newark. The route went up in elevation, paralleling Park Place until crossing New Jersey Route 21 (the McCarter Highway). The highway continued eastward, crossing the last patch of land between 21 and the river before heading onto the swing bridge. Route 158 crossed as a two-lane bridge into Harrison. The route continued onto land just north of New Jersey Railroad Avenue, where it turned northward along First Street. Route 158 turned eastward onto Essex Street, with the right-of-way ending at Second Street, where the designation ended as well.

History

Railroad bridge

The lower level of the Centre Street Bridge, a continuation of Centre Street in Newark, was first constructed for the New Jersey Railroad, which later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. On September 15, 1834, the bridge opened on a single level for trains. A cutoff around the bridge opened in 1870 and the old route became the Centre Street Branch of the New Jersey Railroad, being cut from the main line to the south when the latter was elevated around 1904. On March 1, 1901, a Pennsylvania Railroad train derailed its rear cars on the bridge at 10:23 that evening. When it derailed, the rear cars were dragged for 100 yards across the trestle. The train, a locomotive and five cars, had just left the Centre Street station when it derailed. The bridge had no guard rails at the time, and the rails hung over the bridge. The cars were disconnected, and the passengers continued to Jersey City

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases