Historic Newark-Pompton Turnpike

On February 24, 1806, businessman Israel Crane obtained a charter from the State of New Jersey to build a private toll road running from Broadway in Newark to Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike at Pompton in Morris County. He recognized that good roads and direct routes would be needed to link farms and cities. The portion of the Newark-Pompton Turnpike in Wayne incorporated an existing public road from Colonial times, and no tolls could be charged on that segment. Soon the road along the Pompton River carried wagons bringing produce and iron from the rural north and west to the markets of Newark and its growing suburbs. After Israel Crane's death, the road was acquired by the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 1889. General Lafayette used the road on July 14, 1825, while touring the United States as the nation's guest as the last living Major-General from the American Revolution.

New Jersey · United States