As originally designed, it connected Newark with the area north and west of the Pompton River in what is now Riverdale.

With this improved transportation Bloomfield and Montclair became commercial centers, with taverns, wheelwrights, blacksmiths and wagon makers.

This was the section north of US 46 in Wayne up to what is now the exit (Overpass) by the present NJ Transit Route 23 Park/Ride Lot.

A new alignment of Route 23 then continued north, removing the state highway from the rest of the Newark-Pompton Turnpike (except for a short ½ mile stretch in Pompton Plains and Riverdale).

The Highway continued on a new alignment north through Riverdale, Butler & Kinnelon, connecting to the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike in what was once known as Smith's Mills in West Milford.