page_title: U.S. Route 1/9
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: U.S. Route 1/9 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This shows the Pulaski Skyway before a median barrier was installed. (Comment by User:NE2)
context_page_description: U.S. Route 1/9 is the 31.01-mile long concurrency of US 1 and US 9 from their junction in Woodbridge Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey, north to New York City. The route is a multilane road, with some freeway portions, that runs through urbanized areas of northern New Jersey adjacent to New York City. Throughout most of its length in New Jersey, the road runs near the New Jersey Turnpike/Interstate 95. In Fort Lee, US 1/9 merges onto I-95 and crosses the Hudson River on the George Washington Bridge, where the two U.S. routes split a short distance into New York. US 1/9 intersects several major roads, including I-278 in Linden, Route 81 in Elizabeth, I-78 and US 22 in Newark, Route 139 in Jersey City, Route 3 and Route 495 in North Bergen, and US 46 in Palisades Park. Between Newark and Jersey City, US 1/9 runs along the Pulaski Skyway. Trucks are banned from this section of road and must use US 1/9 Truck. The concurrency between US 1 and US 9 is commonly referred to as "1 and 9". Some signage for the concurrency, as well as the truck route, combines the two roads into one shield, separated by a hyphen or an ampersand.
context_section_description: What is now the US 1/9 concurrency between Woodbridge and Elizabeth was first legislated as the northernmost part of pre-1927 Route 1 in 1916, a route that was to continue south to Trenton. In 1922, an extension of Route 1 was legislated to continue north from Elizabeth to the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City. This extension was planned to be the first superhighway in the United States, with much of it opening in 1928. As a result of the creation of the U.S. Highway System in 1926, US 1 and US 9 were designated through northern New Jersey, sharing a concurrency from the current intersection of Route 27 and Route 35 in Rahway and continuing north on present-day Route 27 (then a part of pre-1927 Route 1) to Newark, then turning east, eventually following  what is now US 1/9 Truck toward Jersey City, where US 1 was to head for the Holland Tunnel and US 9 was to turn north to run near the west bank of the Hudson River. A year later, in the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, pre-1927 Route 1 between New Brunswick and Elizabeth became part of Route 27 while the Route 1 Extension became part of Route 25. In addition, the current alignment of US 1/9 between the Tonnele Circle and Fort Lee, which at the time was a part of US 9, became part of Route 1 while the approach to the George Washington Bridge became a part of Route 6. 
  In 1932, the Pulaski Skyway was opened to traffic, and US 1/9 were designated to use it along with Route 25. Two years later, trucks were banned from the Pulaski Skyway, and a truck bypass of the structure called Route 25T was created. By the 1930s, US 1/9 was moved to follow Route 25 south to Woodbridge instead of Route 27. By the 1940s, the US 1/9 alignment was moved to its current location north the Tonnele Circle, following Route 1 and Route 6 to the George Washington Bridge into New York City. In the vicinity of the George Washington Bridge, the route also ran concurrent with US 46. In addition, US 9 was built to connect to US 1 in Woodbridge on its current alignment (then designated Route 35) instead of using Route 4 (the current Route 35). 
  In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, the state highways running concurrent with US 1/9 were removed, while Route 25T became US 1/9 Truck and Route 25 between the Tonnele Circle and the Holland Tunnel became US 1/9 Business (now Route 139). In 1964, the US 1/9 approaches to the George Washington Bridge, which were shared with US 46 on the New Jersey side, were rebuilt into a freeway that became a part of I-95. Between February 2006 and November 2008, the cloverleaf interchange with Route 35 in Woodbridge Township, which was the first cloverleaf interchange in the United States built in 1929 when this portion of US 1/9 was a part of Route 25, was replaced with a partial cloverleaf interchange, costing $34 million.
  In 2013, Route 1/9 was one of two main thoroughfares in Hudson County (the other being Kennedy Boulevard) that were listed among the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's list of the top ten most dangerous roads for pedestrians in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Route 1/9, which tied for the #10 place on the list, was cited for the five pedestrian fatalities that occurred on it from 2009 to 2011.
caption: 1941 photo of the Pulaski Skyway
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