 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 . 
