page_title: New Jersey Route 27
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: New Jersey Route 27 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: One of two known indentation stamps on state bridges denoting State Highway Route 13 in Kingston. Both bridges are stamped with 1919 as their construction, as Route 27 was not assigned until 1927.
context_page_description: Route 27 is a state highway in New Jersey, United States. It runs 38.53 mi from U.S. Route 206 in Princeton, Mercer County northeast to an interchange with Route 21 and Broad Street in Newark, Essex County. The route passes through many communities along the way, including New Brunswick, Highland Park, Edison, Metuchen, Rahway, and Elizabeth. Route 27 is a two- to four-lane undivided highway for most of its length, passing through a variety of urban and suburban environments. It intersects many roads along the way, including Route 18 in New Brunswick, Interstate 287 in Edison, the Garden State Parkway in Woodbridge Township, Route 35 in Rahway, Route 28 in Elizabeth, and U.S. Route 22 in Newark. Route 27 crosses the Raritan River on the Albany Street Bridge, which connects Highland Park on the east with New Brunswick on the west.
  Route 27 was part of the alignment through New Jersey of the Lincoln Highway, the United States' first transcontinental highway that was established in 1913. Route 27 is still referred to as the Lincoln Highway in many municipalities, such as Edison Township.
context_section_description: The southern part of Route 27 follows the Lenape Assunpink Trail that during the colonial era was known as the Old Dutch Trail, and later became the Kings Highway. North of Rahway, the road was created as Queen Anne's Road, running from Perth Amboy to Elizabethtown Point, with later extensions to Newark and Jersey City. This road would have several names over the following years: it was renamed the King's Highway when it was extended by King George to Jersey City, then to the Post Road during the Revolutionary War, then the Old Country Road after, then finally St. George's Avenue when Rahway was incorporated as a city.
  Route 27 follows portions of several 19th-century turnpikes, including the Essex and Middlesex Turnpike, which was chartered on March 3, 1806 to run from New Brunswick to Newark along what is today Route 27, the Northeast Corridor rail line, and Broad Street in Newark, the Georgetown and Franklin Turnpike, chartered on February 15, 1816 to run from Lambertville to New Brunswick along the present-day alignments of County Route 518 and Route 27, the Newark and Elizabeth Plank Road, chartered on March 14, 1856, and the Princeton and Kingston Branch Turnpike, chartered on December 3, 1807 to run from Trenton to Kingston along current County Route 583 and Route 27. The route became a portion of the Lincoln Highway, the United States' first transcontinental highway that was established in 1913 to run from New York City to San Francisco. It is still known by that name in a few places along the route, particularly in Edison Township.
  In 1916, the Lincoln Highway was legislated as part of pre-1927 Route 1 between New Brunswick and Elizabeth and as pre-1927 Route 13 between Trenton and New Brunswick in 1917. In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 27 was designated to run from Trenton to the intersection of Frelinghuysen Avenue and Astor Street in Newark, replacing the portions of Routes 1 and 13 that ran along the Lincoln Highway. With the creation of the U.S. Highway System, U.S. Route 1 was designated along the length of Route 27 from 1927 until sometime before the 1940s, when the U.S. Route 1 designation was moved to Route 26, Route S26, and Route 25 between Trenton and Newark. U.S. Route 206 was designated along the portion of route between Trenton and Princeton by the 1940s. In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, the southern terminus of Route 27 was cut back to Princeton to avoid the U.S. Route 206 concurrency.
caption: State bridge built in 1919 engraved with the former State Highway Route 13 designation assigned in 1917
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Vivitar", "Image Make": "Vivitar", "Image Model": "ViviCam 6324", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "314", "Image YResolution": "314", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "V1.00", "Image DateTime": "2009:12:12 08:09:24", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "230", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 33, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "10098", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6585", "EXIF ExposureTime": "13831/500000", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "64", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:12:12 08:09:24", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:12:12 08:09:24", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "11/2", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9614", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}