Route 72 is a state highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It runs 28.74 mi (46.25 km) from the Four Mile Circle with Route 70 in Woodland Township in Burlington County to County Route 607 in Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island in Ocean County. Route 72 travels through the Pine Barrens as a two-lane undivided road. After an interchange with the Garden State Parkway, the route becomes a four- to six-lane divided highway through built-up areas of Manhawkin and crosses the Manahawkin Bay via the Manahawkin Bay Bridge onto Long Beach Island.
View west along Route 72 just west of Savoy Boulevard in Woodland Township
Route 72 westbound at the Garden State Parkway interchange in Stafford Township
Traffic circles in New Jersey
The U.S. state of New Jersey at one point had a total of 101 traffic circles, 44 of which were part of state roads. However, the number has shrunk as traffic circles have been phased out by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. In the 1920s and 1930s, New Jersey felt that traffic circles were an efficient way for moving traffic through three or more intersecting roads. Built in 1925, the first traffic circle in New Jersey was the Airport Circle in Pennsauken. Many of these interchanges are rotaries in design, as opposed to the more successful modern roundabout.
Marlton Circle before retrofit project to form a grade separated interchange
Image: 2021 07 15 11 25 59 View south along U.S. Route 130 (Crescent Boulevard) from the overpass for U.S. Route 30 westbound in Pennsauken Township, Camden County, New Jersey
Image: Route 34 circle
Image: 2021 09 26 15 11 38 View north along Somerset County Route 527 (Queens Bridge Approach) from the overpass for the rail line just south of Somerset County Route 533 (Main Street) in Bound Brook, Somerset County, New Jersey