Bergen County has one of the longest-lasting county route systems in New Jersey, being one of only two counties in the state not to switch to a 600-series system with the introduction of the 500-series routes. Bergen County's system dates to the 1920s,[3] and the current system has few changes from its first implementation.
There were two implementations of longer-distance routes. In the late 1930s, a group of three roads in Bergen County received the numbers 200, 201, and 203. 200 ran from Oakland to Alpine; 201 ran from Ridgewood to Alpine; and 203 ran from Weehawken to Alpine. This was the precursor to the 500 series, though with the advent of that system, the 200-series were eliminated by the 1960s.[4] In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the county experimented with long-distance routes to cover the whole county. These were numbered from 1 to 17; north–south routes were given odd numbers, and increased numerically from west to east, and east–west routes were given even numbers, and increased numerically north to south. The routes were signed,[5] but have fallen out of fashion to the extent that the NJDOT no longer recognizes them in their route logs.[6]
