 In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering , Route 17N received the Route 2 designation , and was defined to run from Route 7 in North Arlington to the New York border near Suffern , New York . By 1937 , the whole old road north of Rutherford was bypassed by a new four @-@ lane divided highway with the exception of the 1927 bridge over the Saddle River in Ridgewood , north of the Paramus Road interchange . This old alignment joins at Paramus Road and leaves just north of the bridge at Franklin Turnpike , which only has access to the southbound lanes through a RIRO intersection . A short @-@ lived spur of Route 2 , Route 2N , was defined in 1938 to run from Route 2 ( Ridge Road ) in Lyndhurst west along Kingsland Avenue and over the Passaic River on the Park Avenue Bridge into Nutley , where it would end at Union Avenue ( west of Route 7 ) . In 1930 , New York had renumbered its state routes ; the extension of Route 2 north and west into New York had remained New York State Route 17 . New Jersey had not assigned a Route 17 in the 1927 renumbering , and so in March 1942 , Route 2 was numbered Route 17 to match and provide a single number for military caravans during World War II . 
