Another Look at Early Route 4

A Journey into River Edge (NJ)

Last time we shared with you a pretty cool picture we take across that showed Route 4 being built during the 1930’s.

This time we fast forward a few years later to after the completion of the highway, but still in its early days.

One immediately notices again the intersection of Route 4 with Bogert Road and Main Street (Where Huffman & Boyle stood for over 50 years – it is now the site of Total Wines).

There was a traffic light at the intersection (For Route 4 and Main Street, but seemingly not for Bogert). There was not yet a service road that would be built in the early 1950’s.

On the right, one can discern a sign with an arrow, directing would be transplants to the new Reis Homes being built up the road. I believe there may be a price underneath, but I was unable to see it clearly enough to offer with any confidence what that amount was.

The homes on Lakeview Street are visible. So too is the turn of the road to the left as it heads into Paramus, then still a place of farms and woods. Garden State Plaza, Bergen Mall and all the developers and sprawl businesses to follow would take hold in the mid-fifties.

In this before it all, you can see how traffic was light – the world and its pace was different.

Source: River Edge History Archives; Bergen Record (now Northjersey.com)