Route 71 begins at large grade-separated interchange with New Jersey Route 35 in the community of Brielle, New Jersey. The route heads northward through Brielle as Union Avenue, passing through the commercial district and residential after the intersection with Harvey Avenue. Route 71 continues northward through Brielle as a two-lane highway before beginning a parallel with NJ Transit's North Jersey Coast Line. After entering the community of Manasquan, the highway enters a large commercial district and crosses over the Stockton Brook before curving onto Seventh Avenue. After the intersection with Monmouth County Route 49, Route 71 enters the community of Sea Girt. The route continues north through Sea Girt until the intersection with Monmouth County Route 20, where it enters a short portion of Wall Township. There, the route crosses over the North Branch of the Wreck Pond and enters Spring Lake Heights. Route 71 quickly passes the Spring Lake Golf Club and the nearby Spring Lake train station before entering the downtown portions of Spring Lake Heights. Most of Spring Lake Heights is residential, with a large condominium complex surrounding the southbound direction on Route 71. The highway continues northward, intersecting with County Route 524 and passes Marucci Park. Route 71 intersects with Monmouth County Route 30, where the highway enters the Belmar community of West Belmar. After crossing the intersection with Monmouth County Route 18, Route 71 enters the downtown portion of Belmar, intersecting with Route 35. There, Routes 35 and 71 become concurrent through Belmar, passing the local Belmar train station. At the intersection with Eighth Street, Route 71 turns off to the east and crosses parallel to Route 35 over the Shark River to the community of Avon-by-the-Sea. There, the two routes continue to parallel, with Route 71 becoming a divided one-way street through Avon-by-the-Sea. The route continues northward through the residential seashore community, crossing the Sylvan Creek and entering Bradley Beach. Through Bradley Beach, Route 71 intersects with Monmouth County Route 2, which serves access to the Bradley Beach train station. The highway continues northward through the residential district, and enters Neptune Township. There, Route 71 intersects with the eastern terminus of the cross-state New Jersey Route 33 at Corlies Avenue before entering the large city ofAsbury Park. Through Asbury Park, Route 71 intersects with several local streets at traffic lights as Main Street. The route also serves as the terminus of both County Route 16 and County Route 18. After crossing through Sunset Park, Route 71 approaches Deal Lake, where the highway turns to the east along Deal Lake Drive. Route 71's right-of-way on Main Street becomes County Route 15 and Route 71 continues through the lakeshore community as a two-lane arterial. Soon after, Route 71 turns on Park Avenue, crosses over Deal Lake and enters Loch Arbour. However, the highway heads northward into the community of Allenhurst soon after. Route 71, now known as Norwood Avenue, crosses out of Allenhurst after an intersection with Cedar Avenue, entering the community of Deal. Before the intersection with Roseld Avenue, the highway becomes a divided one with a center median. The route continues this way through the residential portions of Deal, crossing into Ocean Township. There, the route comes back together, crossing over the North Jersey Coast Line once again near the Elberon train station. Route 71 continues through Ocean Township until entering the community of West Long Branch near Whale Pond Brook. At that point, Route 71 serves as the main road to access Monmouth University. At the intersection with Cedar Avenue, Norwood Avenue ends, and Route 71 northbound turns westward along Cedar. The route crosses through Monmouth University and enters the residential portions of West Long Branch, intersecting with County Route 15 and 32 within a mile of each other. At the intersection with County Route 15, Route 71 turns to the northwest through a residential area. Route 71 parallels the Glenwood Cemetery before intersecting with New Jersey Route 36 in West Long Branch. Here, Route 71 continues northwestward on Monmouth Road through large commercial complexes and the local country club. The highway continues northward into Eatontown, where it enters a local residential area and intersects with County Route 547, which become concurrent. Routes 71 and 547 enter downtown Eatontown as Broad Street, heading westward with County Route 547 splitting at Wyckoff Road. The highway continues into the commercial district of Eatontown, where it intersects New Jersey Route 35 once again but Route 71 terminates.
History
From Long Branch to Deal Lake, the road was maintained as part of the Long Branch and Deal Turnpike, which also stretched north along Norwood Avenue and Branchport Avenue. Route 71 originates as part of the Jersey Coast Way, an auto trail running from the Staten Island Ferry to Cape May. This was later an alignment of State Highway Route 4 in the 1920s, which ran from Absecon in Atlantic County northward to Rahway in Union County. Route 4 remained intact through the 1927 state highway renumbering, when Route 4 was realigned onto the current alignment of Route 35 most of its length. The older alignment from Belmar to Eatontown was re-designated as State Highway Route 4-N by the New Jersey State Highway Department. Route 4-N was one of four routes that used the -N suffix from the original numbering. Route 35 was designated on the southern portion, but this got reversed, allow the designation to be extended to Brielle. The route remained intact for the next 24 years, until the second state highway renumbering in 1953. Route 35 remained on its basic alignment, but State Highway Route 4-N was renumbered to Route 71. Route 71 has remained virtually unchanged since the 1953 renumbering in terms of its alignment from Brielle to Eatontown. During the time of the proposed Route 33 Freeway from Trenton to Neptune, the intersection with Route 33 in Neptune was to be upgraded to a grade-separated interchange, but this portion was never built after being canned in 1967.
