Route 27 crosses into Newark, Essex County at the Virginia Street intersection, where it becomes Frelinghuysen Avenue, a road that heads north through the Dayton neighborhood of Newark, passing through urban areas and by Weequahic Park. Route 27 interchanges with U.S. Route 22 and immediately passes under Interstate 78. Route 27 continues north, passing under railroad tracks carrying Conrail Shared Assets Operations' Lehigh Line and NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line and crossing Conrail Shared Assets Operations' Poinier Street Lead line/Irvington-Hillside Industrial Branch at-grade, before it comes to an intersection with Poinier Street, where the route heads east along that road to its northern terminus at an interchange with Route 21 and Broad Street.