New Jersey State Highway 21
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New Jersey State Highway 21 is a highway in northern New Jersey. Its southern terminus is an interchange with US 1/US 9 and US 22 in Newark, New Jersey. Its northern terminus is an interchange with US 46 in Clifton, New Jersey.
The section of highway through Newark is known as McCarter Highway. It parallels the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks up to Newark Penn Station. This portion was commissioned in 1934.
Between 1955 and 1959, the highway was extended northward as a freeway along the west bank of the Passaic River to an interchange with NJ 3. The road made it to the southern border between Clifton and Passaic by 1961. An extension to Paulison Avenue in Passaic opened in 1970, and a section to Monroe Street opened in 1974. For this last section, the river was rerouted, and the road clips Wallington in Bergen County without crossing today's river.
For a quarter-century, traffic headed for Paterson, New Jersey was dumped onto local streets in Passaic. Finally in 1998, construction began on the "missing link" of the freeway, which opened December 22, 2000.
Sections of McCarter Highway are being improved as of 2004, where the road passes features such as Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and a new arena proposed for the New Jersey Devils. However, it is unlikely that this part of the road will ever become a freeway.