The route is a former alignment of State Highway Route 4 through Absecon, intersecting with State Highway Route 43 starting in the 1927 state highway renumbering.
New Jersey | Newark, New Jersey | Princeton, New Jersey | Jersey | Atlantic City, New Jersey | Hoboken, New Jersey | Jersey City, New Jersey | Governor of New Jersey | New Jersey General Assembly | Trenton, New Jersey | New Jersey Senate | New Jersey Devils | U.S. Route 66 | New Brunswick, New Jersey | Paterson, New Jersey | Morristown, New Jersey | U.S. Route 1 | Passaic, New Jersey | New Jersey Legislature | New Jersey gubernatorial election, 2009 | Madison, New Jersey | U.S. Route 6 | U.S. Route 101 | Montclair, New Jersey | Fort Lee, New Jersey | Route 66 | New Jersey Turnpike | Jersey City | Camden, New Jersey | U.S. Route 30 |
In the past, the Route 56 number was used twice for a never-built road between the Laurelton Circle and Mantoloking in Ocean County legislated in 1938 and for the portion of U.S. Route 30 between current Route 157 and Atlantic City between 1938 and 1953.