diff --git a/src/Components/Web.JS/src/Boot.Web.ts b/src/Components/Web.JS/src/Boot.Web.ts
index df605ceebc52..0c7599d4cef0 100644
--- a/src/Components/Web.JS/src/Boot.Web.ts
+++ b/src/Components/Web.JS/src/Boot.Web.ts
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ function boot(options?: Partial<WebStartOptions>) : Promise<void> {
   started = true;
   options = options || {};
   options.logLevel ??= LogLevel.Error;
+  Blazor._internal.isBlazorWeb = true;
 
   // Defined here to avoid inadvertently imported enhanced navigation
   // related APIs in WebAssembly or Blazor Server contexts.
diff --git a/src/Components/Web.JS/src/GlobalExports.ts b/src/Components/Web.JS/src/GlobalExports.ts
index 4e3bf21e6fe4..5a6e24ae0235 100644
--- a/src/Components/Web.JS/src/GlobalExports.ts
+++ b/src/Components/Web.JS/src/GlobalExports.ts
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ export interface IBlazor {
     receiveWebAssemblyDotNetDataStream?: (streamId: number, data: any, bytesRead: number, errorMessage: string) => void;
     receiveWebViewDotNetDataStream?: (streamId: number, data: any, bytesRead: number, errorMessage: string) => void;
     attachWebRendererInterop?: typeof attachWebRendererInterop;
+    isBlazorWeb?: boolean;
 
     // JSExport APIs
     dotNetExports?: {
diff --git a/src/Components/Web.JS/src/Services/NavigationManager.ts b/src/Components/Web.JS/src/Services/NavigationManager.ts
index 8e2de809505a..a76e854980e9 100644
--- a/src/Components/Web.JS/src/Services/NavigationManager.ts
+++ b/src/Components/Web.JS/src/Services/NavigationManager.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import { EventDelegator } from '../Rendering/Events/EventDelegator';
 import { attachEnhancedNavigationListener, getInteractiveRouterRendererId, handleClickForNavigationInterception, hasInteractiveRouter, hasProgrammaticEnhancedNavigationHandler, isForSamePath, isSamePageWithHash, isWithinBaseUriSpace, performProgrammaticEnhancedNavigation, performScrollToElementOnTheSamePage, scrollToElement, setHasInteractiveRouter, toAbsoluteUri } from './NavigationUtils';
 import { WebRendererId } from '../Rendering/WebRendererId';
 import { isRendererAttached } from '../Rendering/WebRendererInteropMethods';
+import { IBlazor } from '../GlobalExports';
 
 let hasRegisteredNavigationEventListeners = false;
 let currentHistoryIndex = 0;
@@ -116,18 +117,21 @@ function navigateToFromDotNet(uri: string, options: NavigationOptions): void {
 
 function navigateToCore(uri: string, options: NavigationOptions, skipLocationChangingCallback = false): void {
   const absoluteUri = toAbsoluteUri(uri);
+  const pageLoadMechanism = currentPageLoadMechanism();
 
-  if (!options.forceLoad && isWithinBaseUriSpace(absoluteUri)) {
-    if (shouldUseClientSideRouting()) {
-      performInternalNavigation(absoluteUri, false, options.replaceHistoryEntry, options.historyEntryState, skipLocationChangingCallback);
-    } else {
-      performProgrammaticEnhancedNavigation(absoluteUri, options.replaceHistoryEntry);
-    }
-  } else {
+  if (options.forceLoad || !isWithinBaseUriSpace(absoluteUri) || pageLoadMechanism === 'serverside-fullpageload') {
     // For external navigation, we work in terms of the originally-supplied uri string,
     // not the computed absoluteUri. This is in case there are some special URI formats
     // we're unable to translate into absolute URIs.
     performExternalNavigation(uri, options.replaceHistoryEntry);
+  } else if (pageLoadMechanism === 'clientside-router') {
+    performInternalNavigation(absoluteUri, false, options.replaceHistoryEntry, options.historyEntryState, skipLocationChangingCallback);
+  } else if (pageLoadMechanism === 'serverside-enhanced') {
+    performProgrammaticEnhancedNavigation(absoluteUri, options.replaceHistoryEntry);
+  } else {
+    // Force a compile-time error if some other case needs to be handled in the future
+    const unreachable: never = pageLoadMechanism;
+    throw new Error(`Unsupported page load mechanism: ${unreachable}`);
   }
 }
 
@@ -266,7 +270,7 @@ async function notifyLocationChanged(interceptedLink: boolean, internalDestinati
 }
 
 async function onPopState(state: PopStateEvent) {
-  if (popStateCallback && shouldUseClientSideRouting()) {
+  if (popStateCallback && currentPageLoadMechanism() !== 'serverside-enhanced') {
     await popStateCallback(state);
   }
 
@@ -282,10 +286,24 @@ function getInteractiveRouterNavigationCallbacks(): NavigationCallbacks | undefi
   return navigationCallbacks.get(interactiveRouterRendererId);
 }
 
-function shouldUseClientSideRouting() {
-  return hasInteractiveRouter() || !hasProgrammaticEnhancedNavigationHandler();
+function currentPageLoadMechanism(): PageLoadMechanism {
+  if (hasInteractiveRouter()) {
+    return 'clientside-router';
+  } else if (hasProgrammaticEnhancedNavigationHandler()) {
+    return 'serverside-enhanced';
+  } else {
+    // For back-compat, in blazor.server.js or blazor.webassembly.js, we always behave as if there's an interactive
+    // router even if there isn't one attached. This preserves a niche case where people may call Blazor.navigateTo
+    // without a router and expect to receive a notification on the .NET side but no page load occurs.
+    // In blazor.web.js, we explicitly recognize the case where you have neither an interactive nor enhanced SSR router
+    // attached, and then handle Blazor.navigateTo by doing a full page load because that's more useful (issue #51636).
+    const isBlazorWeb = (window['Blazor'] as IBlazor)._internal.isBlazorWeb;
+    return isBlazorWeb ? 'serverside-fullpageload' : 'clientside-router';
+  }
 }
 
+type PageLoadMechanism = 'clientside-router' | 'serverside-enhanced' | 'serverside-fullpageload';
+
 // Keep in sync with Components/src/NavigationOptions.cs
 export interface NavigationOptions {
   forceLoad: boolean;
diff --git a/src/Components/test/E2ETest/Infrastructure/WebDriverExtensions/WebDriverExtensions.cs b/src/Components/test/E2ETest/Infrastructure/WebDriverExtensions/WebDriverExtensions.cs
index fd24da459497..96ce725760b5 100644
--- a/src/Components/test/E2ETest/Infrastructure/WebDriverExtensions/WebDriverExtensions.cs
+++ b/src/Components/test/E2ETest/Infrastructure/WebDriverExtensions/WebDriverExtensions.cs
@@ -64,4 +64,17 @@ public static long GetElementPositionWithRetry(this IWebDriver browser, string e
 
         throw new Exception($"Failed to get position for element '{elementId}' after {retryCount} retries. Debug log: {log}");
     }
+
+    internal static bool IsStale(this IWebElement element)
+    {
+        try
+        {
+            _ = element.Enabled;
+            return false;
+        }
+        catch (StaleElementReferenceException)
+        {
+            return true;
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/Components/test/E2ETest/ServerRenderingTests/InteractivityTest.cs b/src/Components/test/E2ETest/ServerRenderingTests/InteractivityTest.cs
index c2c4e6c66340..8ad4cbb048e4 100644
--- a/src/Components/test/E2ETest/ServerRenderingTests/InteractivityTest.cs
+++ b/src/Components/test/E2ETest/ServerRenderingTests/InteractivityTest.cs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 // The .NET Foundation licenses this file to you under the MIT license.
 
 using Components.TestServer.RazorComponents;
+using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.E2ETest;
 using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.E2ETest.Infrastructure;
 using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.E2ETest.Infrastructure.ServerFixtures;
 using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.E2ETests.ServerExecutionTests;
@@ -1287,6 +1288,30 @@ void SetUpPageWithOneInteractiveServerComponent()
         }
     }
 
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData(false, false)]
+    [InlineData(false, true)]
+    [InlineData(true, false)]
+    [InlineData(true, true)]
+    public void CanPerformNavigateToFromInteractiveEventHandler(bool suppressEnhancedNavigation, bool forceLoad)
+    {
+        EnhancedNavigationTestUtil.SuppressEnhancedNavigation(this, suppressEnhancedNavigation);
+
+        // Get to the test page
+        Navigate($"{ServerPathBase}/interactivity/navigateto");
+        Browser.Equal("Interactive NavigateTo", () => Browser.FindElement(By.TagName("h1")).Text);
+        var originalNavElem = Browser.FindElement(By.TagName("nav"));
+
+        // Perform the navigation
+        Browser.Click(By.Id(forceLoad ? "perform-navigateto-force" : "perform-navigateto"));
+        Browser.True(() => Browser.Url.EndsWith("/nav", StringComparison.Ordinal));
+        Browser.Equal("Hello", () => Browser.FindElement(By.Id("nav-home")).Text);
+
+        // Verify the elements were preserved if and only if they should be
+        var shouldPreserveElements = !suppressEnhancedNavigation && !forceLoad;
+        Assert.Equal(shouldPreserveElements, !originalNavElem.IsStale());
+    }
+
     private void BlockWebAssemblyResourceLoad()
     {
         // Force a WebAssembly resource cache miss so that we can fall back to using server interactivity
diff --git a/src/Components/test/testassets/Components.TestServer/RazorComponents/Pages/Interactivity/InteractiveNavigateTo.razor b/src/Components/test/testassets/Components.TestServer/RazorComponents/Pages/Interactivity/InteractiveNavigateTo.razor
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..82ff639c8595
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Components/test/testassets/Components.TestServer/RazorComponents/Pages/Interactivity/InteractiveNavigateTo.razor
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+@page "/interactivity/navigateto"
+@layout Components.TestServer.RazorComponents.Shared.EnhancedNavLayout
+@inject NavigationManager Nav
+@rendermode RenderMode.InteractiveServer
+
+<h1>Interactive NavigateTo</h1>
+
+<p>Shows that NavigateTo from an interactive event handler works as expected, with or without enhanced navigation.</p>
+
+<button id="perform-navigateto" @onclick="@(() => PerformNavigateTo(false))">Navigate</button>
+<button id="perform-navigateto-force" @onclick="@(() => PerformNavigateTo(true))">Navigate (force load)</button>
+
+@code {
+    void PerformNavigateTo(bool forceLoad)
+    {
+        Nav.NavigateTo("nav", forceLoad);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Components/test/testassets/Components.TestServer/RazorComponents/Shared/EnhancedNavLayout.razor b/src/Components/test/testassets/Components.TestServer/RazorComponents/Shared/EnhancedNavLayout.razor
index 7e9166fabb1e..25544afef64e 100644
--- a/src/Components/test/testassets/Components.TestServer/RazorComponents/Shared/EnhancedNavLayout.razor
+++ b/src/Components/test/testassets/Components.TestServer/RazorComponents/Shared/EnhancedNavLayout.razor
@@ -45,4 +45,6 @@
     <br />
 </nav>
 <hr />
-@Body
+<main>
+    @Body
+</main>