New Jersey Route 88 - History

History

What is modern-day Route 88 was first built as a hard gravel county road back in 1903, the first such road in Ocean County. In 1916, this road was designated as a part of pre-1927 Route 4, a state road that was to run from Absecon north to Rahway. With the creation of the U.S. Highway System in 1926, U.S. Route 9 was also designated along this route, running concurrent with Route 4. In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering a year later, Route 35 replaced this portion of pre-1927 Route 4 as part of its route from Lakewood to South Amboy. By the 1940s, U.S. Route 9 was moved off this portion of Route 35 to follow its current alignment along Route 4 between Lakewood and South Amboy. In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 35 was realigned to follow what was a part of Route 37 between Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights, and Route 88 was designated along the former alignment of Route 35 between Lakewood and Point Pleasant. A traffic circle called the Laurelton Circle, built in 1937, once existed at the intersection with Route 70; it was replaced with its current configuration by the 1990s.

Route 88 was referred to in the 1973 song "Spirit in the Night" by Bruce Springsteen on his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J..