Monday - Friday
8:00 - 4:00

P: 201.569.5400
Directory

67 Union Ave
Cresskill, NJ 07626

Cresskill Clock

History of Cresskill

The Borough of Cresskill has an interesting history dating through time from America's colonial period to the present.

Please take the time to view the various "More About Cresskill" web pages to learn more information about the borough, as it is now and as it was in the past. 

Of all the traffic circles in New Jersey none is more renowned than the one in Cresskill. It is at the intersection of Knickerbocker Road and Madison Ave. (on Route 501). The Circle embraces the 65 foot obelisk that was dedicated in 1924 as a national symbol and recognizes the contributions made by the 563 men andwomen that lost their lives while serving their country at Camp Merritt during World War I.

The nation's first traffic circle, Airport Circle, was built in Pennsauken, Camden County, in 1925 - 1926. Over the next fifteen years, approximately 75 circles were built throughout New Jersey.

New Jersey's highway engineers experimented with circles, clover-leafs, and a variety of other intersection designs to improve traffic flow in the late 1920s and 1930s.

In the late 1970s it was recognized that dramatic increases in traffic volume at some circles made it necessary to redesign them. 

This Monument marks the center of Camp Merritt and faces the highway over which more than a million American soldiers passed on their way to and fromFrance during the World War, 1914 - 1918.