Bob and Guy:
In April 1929, the New Jersey State Legislature approved a bill that expanded the existing state highway network. The lawmakers included State Route S-40 in the act, which would extend from Manahawkin to a point in Burlington County along State Route 40. The “S” in “S-40” stood for “Spur” as the new road would be a spur of Route 40 (now Route 70). The following year, the State Highway Department completed a ribbon of concrete in Ocean County between the Burlington County Line and Route 9.
Planning for the Burlington County section proceeded apace and state highway engineers soon determined to connect the new roadway with Route 40 near the State Colony for the Feeble-Minded at Four Mile. Financing issues arose during the Great Depression and the state obtained federal funds to complete the S-40 construction project in Burlington County. In May 1936, the State Highway Department advertised for proposals to construct an “underpass” at the point where the Central Railroad of New Jersey crossed S-40 in Woodland Township, Burlington County:
The State Highway Department wasted no time in awarding the construction contract to S.J. Groves & Sons Company of Ridgefield, New Jersey, based on a bid of $52,833. In keeping with the requirements of federal funding for this grade-crossing elimination project, the contractor would recruit laborers from the rolls of the National Reemployment Service Center in Mount Holly. The New Jersey State Highway Department reported receiving a total of $128,300 in federal aid to complete the S-40 construction project in Burlington County.
During construction, a 32-year-old CNJ electrician named James Green received a lethal dose of electricity after he came in contact with the high-tension wires passing down the railroad right-of-way. The burns affected Green’s left hand, arm, neck, and left leg. Other railroad workers carried the Dunellen native’s body to the nearby State Colony hospital for initial treatment. An ambulance then arrived to transport the dying man to Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly, where he succumbed to his burns after lapsing into unconsciousness. [I supposed we will now read stories about the bridge over Route 72 being haunted!]
In 1953, the New Jersey State Highway Department undertook a grand renumbering of its state highway routes and S-40 became State Route 72. The CNJ railroad bridge or “underpass” on Route 72 remains as a testament to the State Highway Department’s ardent desire to eliminate as many grade crossings as possible throughout the state as the popularity of automobiles increased. This is the rationale that drove the state to broker the merger of the Pennsylvania and Reading lines through South Jersey to form the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines 1933, thereby eliminating duplicative trackage and the numerous attendant grade crossings.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
I always enjoy your indepth writings. The American Bridge Company had several buildings in Trenton. The area along the water front including Kat-Man-Du and the Trenton Stadium, plus the spot were the Trenton Arena is now located. I can remember huge spools of braided wire and cable sitting in the yard of what is now the arena parking lot.. The location is Broad Street and Hamilton Avenue. In no form what so ever, does it resemble what it once was. It is bisected by Route 129 and one off ramp. There are several buildings still left standing across Hamilton Avenue in the furthest parking lot. The front side of the arena is actually the original wall of what was a huge brick building. That building was easily several acres in size! (After a quick call to my father, Kat-Man-Du was a warehouse from what he recalls) Roebling still has many buildings standing along South Clinton Avenue. Some are converted, while others stand empty. The Roebling Machine Shop is among the nicest.
