The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 8

INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS A-8 SUNDAY, JUNE 23. 1996 THE COURIER-NEWS, Interstate put Central Jersey on road to progress Canal. Until the interstates arrived, most of the region's 20th-century roads followed paths used by Native Americans, privately constructed turnpikes or 17th-and 18th-century market routes used by farmers. One major route through the region was the Old York Road, which was an 18th-century version of an interstate. As a link between New York City and Philadelphia, the road was made famous by the Swift Sure stage line, launched in 1799.

to the Delaware Water Gap. In 1806, the New Jersey Turnpike Company was chartered. It built a road from New Brunswick to Easton, running through Bound Brook, Bridgewater, Somerville, Potter-stown and Bloomsbury. Route 28 and Easton Avenue in Franklin are among the present-day descendants of the Old York Road and the Easton Turnpike. The first state highway built through Union, Middlesex, Somerset and Hunterdon counties was called Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

Construction of the region's first railroad, the Elizabeth-Town Som-erville Rail-Road began in 1834 in Elizabeth. It reached Bound Brook in 1841 and Somerville a year later. By 1846, the railroad went bankrupt. At the time, that was hardly a concern. The Delaware Raritan Canal was thriving.

For years, the Canal, which passed through Somerset and Hunterdon counties, moved more freight than the celebrated Erie Central Jersey town population, 1960-90 Beginning at a ferry dock in Jersey City, the Old York Road meandered through Newark, Springfield, Scotch Plains, Bound Brook, Somerville, Centerville, Flemington and Lam-bertville before crossing into Bucks County. The journey took two days. Welcome, turnpikes The dawn of the 1800s brought privately funded turnpikes to Central Jersey. The state's first toll road, authorized in 1801, began in Elizabeth and ran through Springfield on its way AO. I Union AW Clinton Twp.

tERDDN As JLWWWW r.WW AKk rr-j r-s V. iBWKSDury wvvr- Readington I Population change I I i in Contra! Jorsoy uiaasione jl 1 Population decrease h-AW. Inrr Hampton. -V cx-A 1 RVidnea i vr -Xj- 50-100 Over 200 101-200 Bloomsbury 7j0 to sS I TOWN 1960 1990 HUNTERDON Alexandria 1,629 3,594 Bethlehem 1,090 3,104 Bloomsbury 838 890 Califon 777 1,023 Clinton Town 1,158 2,054 Clinton Twp. 3,770 10,816 Delaware 2,485 3,816 EastAmwell 1,981 4,332 Remington 3,232 4,047 Franklin 1,777 2,851 Frenchtown 1,340 1,528 Glen Gardner 787 1,665 Hampton 1,135 1,515 High Bridge 2,148 3,886 Holland 2,495 4,892 Kingwood 1,841 3,325 Lambertville 4,269 3,927 Lebanon Boro 880 1 ,036 Lebanon Twp.

2,841 5,679 Milford 1,114 1,273 Raritan 4,545 15,616 Readington 6,147 13,400 Stockton 520 629 Tewksbury 1 ,908 4,803 Union 1,717 5,078 WestAmwell 1,683 2,251 Total 54,107 107,776 SOMERSET Bedminster 2,322 7,086 Bernards 9,018 17,199 Bemardsville 5,515 6,597 Bound Brook 10,236 9,487 Bridgewater 15,789 32,509 Branchburg 3,714 10,888 Far Hills 702 657 Franklin 19,858 42,780 Green Brook 3,622 4,460 Hillsborough 7,584 28,808 Manville 10,995 10.567 Millstone 409 450 By TOM PERRY Courier-News Staff Writer For more than 100 years, the lack of major transportation initiatives kept growth and development at a relative crawl in most of Central Jersey. But by signing the interstate highway legislation into law on June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower triggered the most dramatic changes to the region "since the railroad went through the area," said James Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Highway numbers not just random Administrator cites patterns By TOM PERRY Courier-News Staff Writer Interstate highway numbers were not picked out of a hat. They do mean something, said Richard Weingroff of the Federal Highway Adminstatrion.

"When it came time to number the roads in 1957, it was decided to use a mirror image of the numbering pattern that was developed in the 1920s," Weingroff said. In general, the 1920s numbering pattern assigned odd numbers to east-west routes and even numbers to north-south routes, Weingroff said. Routes 202 and 206, as an example, run north-south. Current Route 22, running east to west, was once designated as Route 29. Though there are exceptions in some states, Weingroff said, most interstate numbers adhere to the following patterns: A true "interstate," one that runs through more than one state, will have only one or two numbers.

The longest interstates end in "0" or "5." Two-digit numbers that are even, such as Interstate 78, run east to west. Two-digit numbers that are odd, such as Interstate 95, will run north-to-south. Three-digit numbers ending in an even number are spurs from a primary interstate route which loop around an urban area or connect circuitous routes. (In New Jersey, Interstate 280, between Interstate 80 in Parsippany and Interstate 95 outside of Newark is a connector.) Three digit numbers ending in an odd number indicate a radial or spur route. (New Jersey's Interstate 287, which runs from Middlesex County to Interstate 87 in New York State, is an example of radial route.) The lowest interstate route numbers are in the west and south.

fl In the 48 contiguous states, there are 58 main ne-and two-digit routes, 27 are east-west routes; 31 go Stocktort 7 EastAmwell 7 gUmbertvto MERCER I Mk Jtk r.i R6fltansomervife ItT First settled in 1920, Hobbstown was home to 51 families in 1958. The Bridgewater citizens committee, which did not include a single resident of Hobbstown, had proposed a route that would have resulted in the demolition of the neighborhood's church as well as several homes. "We were very concerned," Field said. "We were thinking that if the highway was not going to touch the rich and powerful, it was not going to touch us either." After including Hobbstown residents in the discussion and battling 1 Bound MontgomeV Montgomery 3,851 9,612 Warren 5,386 10,830 Middlesex 10,520 13,055 Fanwood 7,963 7,115 North Plainfield 16,993 18,820 Watchung 4,750 5,110 Piscataway 19,890 47,089 Mountainside 6,325 6,657 1,804 2,111 Total 143,913 240,279 South Plainfield 17,879 20,489 N.Providence 10,243 11,439 Raritan 6,691 5,798 MIDDLESEX Total 99,928 175,841 Plainfield 45,330 46,567 Rocky Hill 528 693 union Scotch Plains 18,491 21,160 Somerville 12,458 11,632 Dunellen 6,840 6,528 Westfield 31,447 28,870 S. Bound Brook 3,626 4,185 Edison 44-799 88'680 Berkeley Hts.

8.721 11,980 Total 128,520 133,788 system raised ire in Route 9. Funded in 1917, it ran from Elizabeth to Phillipsburg as an ancestor of sorts to Route 29, which eventu-ally became U.S. Route 22. TL The region's precursors to the post-World War II interstates, Routes 22, 202 and 206, were designated part of the U.S. highway system after 1925J That's when the old federal Bureau of Public Roads joined with state road officials to create a system for numbering the main roads that existed at the time.

od NJO mI Sootcri cf(S- Rain mid '50s state highway officials, the township committee persuaded authorities to go back to the drawing board. The current route of 1-287 skirts the Hobbstown section of Bridgewater, running farther south than any of the three plans that were offered in 1958. "As African-Americans, we were very aware at the time of the impact of things like urban renewal," said Field, who still lives in Bridgewater. "Our neighborhood was here before" most suburban growth took place in the area. was used by an average of 14,000 cars a day.

In 1995, the highway was used by 56,000, according to the Department of Transportation. Of the 10 interstate highways in New Jersey, only two are longer than I-287 and I-78. The state's longest interstate, I-95, is 77.96 miles long. Second-longest is I-295 at 75.98 miles. I-78 is 67.83 miles long; I-287 is 67.54.

Though it may not seem this way, Central Jersey's two interstates are not even among the most heavily-traveled in the state. Average daily traffic on I-78 is 67,000 vehicles, placing it sixth among New Jersey's 10 interstates. I-287 ranks eighth with average daily traffic of 56,200. The busiest interstate: I-95, with average daily traffic of 129,300. The least traveled: I-195 at 26,900.

In November 1963, county officials in Middlesex and Somerset complained bitterly to federal authorities about the prohibition against service stations and restaurants on the interstates. Local officials were concerned, they said, about "motorists who would be forced off the freeways for gas and food." An Interstate 278 was planned in 1956 to extend from the Goethals Bridge and run through eastern Union County, connecting with 1-78 in Springfield. Determined to be too costly, the road was never' built. New Jersey ranks 43rd in total interstate mileage but 18th in the amount of vehicle miles traveled, according to the 1995 National Highway Statistics report. There are 426 miles of interstate road in New Jersey, which is about 1 percent of the public roadway mileage in the state.

The interstate system approximately 28 percent of all truck traffic in New Jersey. IMPACT: Downtown merchants suffered Bet you didn't know i highway through the township. Residents of Foothill Road and along the Watchung Mountain organized quickly to protest routes proposed by the state and county. Bridgewater Township officials appointed a citizens committee, made up solely of Foothill Road residents, to draw up a new route to submit to state and federal authorities. The route proposed by Bridgewater Township's citizens committee was endorsed by the Township Committee and sent to Trenton with the blessing of elected officials.

Local comment "Before 287 and 78, if you were going west from North Plainfield, there was Somerville and nothing wilderness. The mind-set was different. People who lived here back then didn't travel as much as they do now." Richard E. Williams, Somerset County Administrator didn't have the interstates, it's obvious we wouldn't have the Hills development, or Hoechst." Williams said the growth along the interstates has drastically changed the region. "About half the people you talk to will say it's been a good thing.

The other half will say the opposite," he said. "But once the interstate die was cast back in the '50s, there was no stopping it." The population growth in Hunterdon and Somerset counties follows the same path as interstates 78 and 287, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Between 1960 and 1990, Hunterdon's overall population increased by 99 percent to 107,779 from 54,107. But in the eight Hunterdon communities that 1-78 passes through, population increased by 136 percent, rising to 45,970 from 19,441.

During the same period, Somerset's population rose to 240,279 from 143,913, or 67 percent. Growth leaders include five of the six municipalities that 1-287 or 78 pass through. Between 1960 and 1990, population in the Somerset municipalities along the interstates more than doubled, increasing to a combined 115,154 from 57,126. Though Hunterdon and Somerset counties both grew dramatically after the arrival of the railroad in the mid-1800s, Hughes said railroad growth patterns differ from interstate patterns. Development along Central Jer- 7 La Interstate By TOM PERRY Courier-News Staff Writer Even before the first pavement was poured for the interstate highway system in Central Jersey, the roadway generated controversy and divided communities.

By mid-1957, about a year after President Eisenhower signed interstate highway legislation, residents of Bridgewater were pressuring local, state and federal officials to change the proposed route of Inteitate 287 "When they started building the interstates through those rural farmlands, it was inconceivable to people that they would ultimately be engulfed by subur ban sprawl. James W. Hughes, Dean, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning Public Policy, Rutgers University Along with other factors, that diminishing traffic has spelled tough times for the downtowns in those communities. The interstates undermined some of the traditional retail centers and Main Streets, said Hughes, who calls the interstates "the main streets of the 21st century." "There were winners and losers in the process," he said.

"The interstates precipitated a completely different lifestyle of automobile domination." Champi recalls that it was in the early 1960s that he got his first clue to take the new interstate lifestyle seriously. At the time, he had a client who'd been trying for years to sell a tract of land near Route 202, north of what is now Interstate 78. "He couldn't give the land away because there were high-tension wires" Champi said. "Once they started working on 287, it was 'Katie, bar the In 1968, The New York Times reported that "a 45-acre tract that was sold in 1964 for $4,000 an acre" had been "resold about a year and a half later for $11,000 an acre." The same unnamed tract along 1-287 was being offered in 1968 for "about $25,000 an acre." Somerset County Administrator Richard Williams was the county's director of economic development from 1968 through most of the 1970s and early 1980s. "The interstates in Somerset propelled the economy ahead at least 10, if not 20 years," Williams said.

"If we f.lVj:J On Jan. 30, 1958, residents of the Hobbstown section of Bridgewater, a predominately black neighborhood, learned from Mayor C. Norman Thompson that the township's route "would cut through" their part of town. "We had organized a committee and everyone got involved," said Evelyn S. Field, who became secretary of the committee.

Cornelius Hobbs, grandson of one of the Hobbstown founders, was selected to chair the neighborhood's committee. "One result of the lack of planning around the interstates is that we've forced iVry I almost total auto A dependence on live around here." Mary Ellen Marino, RideWise program director sey's rail lines was confined to a narrow corridor "because people had to walk to the train station," Hughes said. "The interstate system generated more of a sprawl. It was totally undisciplined and growth just oozes across the landscape." Mary Ellen Marino of Raritan Valley RideWise, a Somerset County-based transportation management agency, said the decentralization created by the interstates has come with a price. The interstates, she said, have "stranded many urban residents from job opportunities, made chauffers out of full-time caregivers and clogged our beautiful country roads with truck and car traffic." Marino said that as a result of the interstate sprawl, children have been prevented from "traveling independently, from safely walking and riding bicycles to schools, libraries, after-school activities and friends' houses." At the American Highway Users Alliance in Washington, Hickman said critics of the interstate highway system just can't face reality.

"It's simple," he said. "The American way of life requires an automobile." Hughes said highway traffic and dependence on the automobile and interstates in Central Jersey are here to stay. "It would take a radical change in energy cost to change that pattern that now exists," he said. "I'm talking $5 to $10 a gallon. Outside of that, we're looking at how it's going to be in the 21st century." A law in 1990 changed the official name of the system to "The Dwight D.

Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways," honoring the president who helped accelerate the interstate construction program. The federal government's first defense-road initiative was launched in 1922 when the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads asked the U.S. Army to produce the "Pershing Map," the first map of roads of prime importance in the event of war. In 1956, officials predicted the interstate highway system would be completed by at least the mid-1970s.

As of early 1996, 73 miles remain to be constructed in seven states. Originally, the interstate highway system was designed as a network. When it is completed it will be comprised of 45,530 miles. Federal taxes have financed 90 percent of the cost of constructing interstate highways, which are operated and maintained by the states. The interstate highway system links more than 90 percent of the nation's cities with populations of more than 50,000.

In order to build the interstates, the federal government increased taxes on gasoline, diesel and automotive products by about 28 percent on July 1, 1956. The interstates carry more than 22 percent of all travel, but represent only 1.2 percent of the nation's total miles of streets and roads. If laid end to end, the interstate highway system would circle the earth twice. Short sections of both I-78 and I-287 opened in 1958. In that year, a 2.3 mile stretch of I-287 opened in Morris County, while 6.7 miles of I-78 opened in Hunterdon.

After the first section of I-287 opened in Somerset, in 1961, it Continued from Page A-1 from Perth Amboy to Suffern, N.Y." during the 1950s. As confused as they were about what to call the interstate during the Eisenhower years, Central Jerseyans were even less certain, if not totally inaccurate, about what the roadway would mean for the area. James W. Hughes, dean of the School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said the interstates "completely changed all patterns of connectivity within New Jersey," redefining and reinventing the state's economic geography. "This was totally unanticipated," Hughes said.

Stephen R. Champi, 72, a Somerville attorney, moved from North Plainfield to Somerville in 1953 to be closer to the county seat. Though he was active in local affairs, Champi said he never got the sense anyone had an inkling of how the interstates would reshape the region. "I have no recollection of any of us having any idea of what the impact would be," Champi said. On Aug.

23, 1961, the first local section of 1-287 opened between Route 28 in Bridgewater and Weston Canal Road in Franklin Township. By that time, Central Jerseyans were beginning to peer into the future. "County and municipal officials believe that an industrial boom of almost staggering proportions will follow in the wake of the black-topped ribbon that's growing longer every day," The Plainfield Courier-News reported on July 29, 1961. In retrospect, some of the widespread optimism of the time was off-target. A spokesman for the Plainfield Area Chamber of Commerce cheered the arrival of 1-287, saying, "It will mean more business for the merchants, with rising prosperity being felt throughout the area, and it will have a decided effect on the overall economy of the city." The mayors of Bound Brook, Somerville and Middlesex boroughs happily saw Route 287 "as a solution to traffic snarls that have long plagued their towns," The Courier-News reported in 1961.

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