Why Route 206 Looks So Wrong in Hammonton

[00:00:00]Before we can understand why the Whitehorse Pike bypasses Hammonton today, we first have to look at the original road. When New Jersey's Whitehorse Pike was first designated, it didn't follow today's broad curve around the north side of town. Instead, motorists entered Hammonton on present-day Egg Harbor Road, traveled straight through downtown, then continued northwest along today's Route 143 toward Ancora. In other words, if you were driving the Whitehorse Pike a century ago, you would have driven directly through the heart of Hammonton. By the early 1920s, automobile traffic was increasing rapidly, and engineers knew the old route through Hammonton wouldn't be able to handle growing volumes forever.

[00:00:41]The obvious solution seemed simple.

[00:00:44]Widen the existing Whitehorse Pike, but there was one major problem.

[00:00:49]Road into Hammonton was lined with enormous shade trees that had become one of the community's defining features.

[00:00:55]When state engineers proposed widening the highway in 1924, it meant cutting many of them down.

[00:01:02]Residents weren't happy. Some believed there had to be a better solution.

[00:01:07]Former State Highway Commissioner Walter Busby agreed. Rather than widening the existing road through town, Busby proposed something far more ambitious, a roughly 5-mi cutoff between Elm and Decosta that would separate eastbound and westbound traffic. Under his proposal, one direction would continue using the original Whitehorse Pike through Hammonton, while traffic traveling the opposite direction would use the new bypass around town. Although the state ultimately rejected Busby's idea, it revealed something important.

[00:01:37]By the mid-1920s, engineers were already thinking beyond simply widening the Whitehorse Pike. They were beginning to rethink Hammonton's entire highway network.

[00:01:47]And that's where another highway entered the picture.

[00:01:50]>> [music] >> Around the same time, Route 39, the highway that would eventually become Route 206, was being planned south from Bordentown toward Decosta.

[00:01:59]Rather than simply following Bellevue Avenue into Hammonton, the new highway approached town on its own alignment, curving gradually to the southeast. At first glance, that alignment seems a little strange. But a newspaper article published in 1929 reveals why. State planners intended for Route 39 to continue far beyond today's US 30.

[00:02:21]According to the proposal, the new highway would cross the newly constructed White Horse Pike on a grade-separated bridge [music] between Bellevue Avenue and Atco Road.

[00:02:32]From there, it would proceed through Broadway and Park Avenue, cross Egg Harbor Road near Hammonton Park, and continue southeast along Weymouth Road toward Mays Landing, where it would connect with the Harding Highway to Atlantic City. Viewed in that context, the curious eastward bend at the southern terminus of today's Route 206 suddenly makes much more sense.

[00:02:53]Rather than simply ending at the White Horse Pike, the highway appears to have been designed as the beginning of a much longer route toward Weymouth and Cape May.

[00:03:02]But that proposal quickly became controversial.

[00:03:05]Local officials wanted Route 39 to pass through the center of Hammonton, while many residents feared the impact such a highway and its proposed bridge over the White Horse Pike would have on the community.

[00:03:17]More than 700 residents packed one public meeting, with the overwhelming majority opposing both the downtown alignment and the bridge.

[00:03:25]Like the earlier fight over the shade trees, Hammonton once again found itself wrestling with a familiar question. How do you improve a highway without changing the character of the town?

[00:03:35]Nearly a century later, we can still trace the debates through newspaper archives and highway maps.

[00:03:41]But exactly when the White Horse Pike officially shifted from its original route through downtown to today's alignment remains surprisingly elusive.

[00:03:49]Sometimes, history doesn't end with a clear answer. And that's what made this story so fascinating to research. If you found this bit of road history around Hammonton interesting, please consider subscribing to my humble Road Geek channel or hitting the like button.

[00:04:04]Now, let's get back on the White Horse Pike.

[00:07:44]>> Woo!

[00:07:51]>> Steps were taken towards a concerted drive for the construction of parallel roads to the White Horse Pike to provide not only relief from the present congestion, but also to accommodate future travel by the Board of Freeholders at their meeting at the County Asylum on Wednesday.

[00:08:05]Another resolution calls for a conference with the Camden County officials and the State Highway Commission to take up the proposed improvement of the route leading from Elm on the White Horse Pike, known as the Woolsey Mill Road, to a junction with the Decosta Hammonton Road at Bellevue Avenue, Hammonton.

[00:08:22]This latter road, it was pointed out by Mr. Tomlin, is parallel to the White Horse Pike and would materially assist in relieving traffic on the latter.

[00:08:30]It has also been suggested this would eliminate the widening of the White Horse Pike between Elm and Hammonton and consequently the trees along the highway would not have to be destroyed.

[00:11:34]>> Mhm.

[00:12:51]>> Mr. Melon.

[00:12:52]>> Hey, hey, hey, hey, relax. This engine put under a lot of pressure. Let's take it EASY ON IT.

[00:13:01]>> THE ANSWER IS FOUR.

[00:13:12]RIGHT.