The highway extends 20.64 miles (33.22 kilometers) from Kennedy Boulevard (CR 501) in Union City to the New York state line in Northvale.

At Anthony M. DeFino Way in West New York it takes a right turn and descends to the waterfront becoming River Road through North Bergen and Edgewater, where it then intersects Route 5.

[6] The 1955 USGS map of the Park Ridge Quadrangle shows CR 505 running south from the New York state line on Spring Valley Road in Montvale, then east on Grand Avenue, and south on Pascack Road through Park Ridge, Woodcliff Lake, and Hillsdale, all several miles west of its modern-day alignment.

They run a half mile from Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen and stretch southward towards Bulls Ferry Road in Weehawken.

[7] There are numerous bridges along Boulevard East crossing over clefts in the cliffs, many approaching 100 years in age.