 Route 4 was originally legislated in the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering to run from Cape May north to the George Washington Bridge, running through Pleasantville, Toms River, Freehold, Perth Amboy, Rahway, and Paterson. The route replaced portions of the alignments of several pre-1927 state highways including pre-1927 Route 14 between Cape May and Seaville, pre-1927 Route 19 between Seaville and Absecon, pre-1927 Route 4 between Absecon and Lakewood and between South Amboy and Rahway, a spur of pre-1927 Route 7 between Lakewood and Freehold. The rest of the proposed route was to be built on a new alignment. Of the pre-1927 state highways that Route 4 was to follow, pre-1927 Route 14 was originally legislated in 1917, pre-1927 Route 19 was legislated in 1923 but never built, pre-1927 Route 4 was created in 1916, and the spur of pre-1927 Route 7 was created in 1925. U.S. Route 9 was also designated along Route 4 between Absecon and Lakewood and from South Amboy to Rahway. By the 1940s, U.S. Route 9 was realigned to follow Route 4 between Lakewood and South Amboy, having followed portions of today ’ s Route 88, Route 35, and Route 71 and was extended south along Route 4 to Cape May. The section of present-day Route 4 was built between 1930 and 1934 to connect Paterson and the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee. There were plans made in 1936 to make this portion of Route 4 a limited-access road; however, World War II delayed plans for the expressway.
