Route 4 is a long
provincial highway
Numbered highways in Canada are split by province, and a majority are maintained by their province or territory transportation department. All highways in Canada are numbered except for three in the Northwest Territories, one in Alberta, one in O ...
located entirely in
York County,
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
, Canada. The highway begins on the
Saint Croix – Vanceboro Bridge between the cities of
Vanceboro,
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
and
Saint Croix
Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorpo ...
, and travels east to an interchange with
Route 3 in
Thomaston Corner.
Route description
Route 4 begins on the Saint Croix – Vanceboro Bridge over the
Saint Croix River, which serves as both the
boundary
Boundary or Boundaries may refer to:
* Border, in political geography
Entertainment
*Boundaries (2016 film), ''Boundaries'' (2016 film), a 2016 Canadian film
*Boundaries (2018 film), ''Boundaries'' (2018 film), a 2018 American-Canadian road trip ...
between Maine and New Brunswick and the border between the
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...
and
Atlantic Time Zone
The Atlantic Time Zone is a geographical region that keeps standard time—called Atlantic Standard Time (AST)—by subtracting four hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC), resulting in UTC−04:00. AST is observed in parts of North America ...
,
traveling east through the customs station. Exiting Saint Croix, the highway crosses
Route 630 as it begins to parallel a rail line belonging to the
New Brunswick Southern Railway
The New Brunswick Southern Railway Company Limited is a Canadian short line railway owned by the New Brunswick Railway Company Limited, a holding company that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the industrial conglo ...
through rural York County. The highway is surrounded by woodlands until entering the Village of
McAdam, where it serves as the main road through town, changing its name three times (Vanceboro Road, Saunders Road, and finally, Harvey Road). The highway turns more northerly through town then turns to the south before straightening out more in a more northeasterly direction again, entering more woodlands. Route 4 traverses the small community of
Christie Ridge before terminating at an intersection with Route 3 in Thomaston Corner.
History
Between McAdam and St. Croix, Route 4 follows the bed of one of New Brunswick's first
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
s, a wooden line built by a
lumberman
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
named Todd who wanted to transport his logs to the Saint Croix River. The line was deemed surplus with the construction of the parallel
European and North American Railway
The European and North American Railway (E&NA) is the name for three historic Canadian and American railways which were built in New Brunswick and Maine.
The idea of the E&NA as a single system was conceived at a railway conference in Portland, M ...
in the late 1860s, immediately to the south, and it was later converted to a road.
Major intersections
References
{{NB Expressways
004
004