New Jersey Route 59

Route 59 marker
Route 59
Lincoln Avenue
Map
Alignment of Route 59 in red
Route information
Maintained by NJDOT
Length0.15 mi[1] (240 m)
Existed1953–present
Major junctions
South end CR 610 in Cranford
North end Route 28 on Cranford–Garwood line
Location
CountryUnited States
StateNew Jersey
CountiesUnion
Highway system
Route 58 Route 60
US 22Route 22 Route 23

Route 59 is the shortest state highway in New Jersey, United States, at 0.15-mile (0.24 km) long.[2] The route consists entirely of a short block of Lincoln Avenue from Union County Route 610 (known locally as South Avenue) in Cranford to New Jersey Route 28 (known locally as North Avenue) along the Cranford–Garwood border. The route functions as an underpass under the Raritan Valley Line of NJ Transit, under which it crosses about halfway down the block, along the municipal border. Route 59 was originally a proposed alignment of Route 22, which was supposed to head from an intersection with current day New Jersey Route 159 in Morris County at the Pine Brook Bridge before heading through several counties, terminating at an intersection with New Jersey Route 27 in Rahway. Most of the route was not constructed, and a portion in Garwood and Cranford was re-designated Route 59 in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering on January 1, 1953.

  1. ^ "Route 59 Straight Line Diagram" (PDF). New Jersey Department of Transportation. 2009. p. 1. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  2. ^ Roberts, Russell. New Jersey's Atlantic Shore: From Sandy Hook to Atlantic City & on to Cape May, p. 3. Hunter Publishing, 2011. ISBN 9781588439796. Accessed October 27, 2019. "The shortest highway in America is in New Jersey. Route 59, clocking in at a whopping 792 feet, is located on the border of Cranford and Garwood. It was originally built in 1931 to be part of Route 22, but plans changed."