In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, the portion of Route 35 between Lakewood and Point Pleasant became Route 88 and Route 35 was designated to head south from Point Pleasant to Seaside Heights on what had been a part of Route 37. This section of Route 35 follows the right-of-way of the former Pennsylvania Railroad between Seaside Park and Mantoloking, which was removed in 1949. Also in the 1953 renumbering, the Route 35 designation was removed from the concurrency with U.S. Route 9 between South Amboy and Iselin and reassigned to the former alignment of Route 4 between South Amboy and Route 27 in Rahway. The western bypass of Seaside Heights was built by the 1960s, extending Route 35 south to the border with Seaside Park.