NEW JERSEY

The Middle Atlantic region. constituent state of the United States of America lying on the Atlantic seaboard in the Middle Atlantic region of the country. The capital is Trenton. New Jersey's only land boundary is with New York on the north. To the east lies the Atlantic Ocean, to the northeast across the Hudson River is New York City, and to the west across the Delaware River and Bay are Pennsylvania and Delaware. The state extends about 170 miles (270 km) from north to south and 75 miles (120 km) from east to west. At the time of European exploration and settlement, the New Jersey area was inhabited by the Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) Indians. The first European to land in the area was the Florentine explorer Giovanni de Verrazano, sailing under the French flag in 1524. Henry Hudson, an Englishman exploring for the Dutch, arrived in 1609. The first settlements were fortified Dutch and Swedish trading posts along the Hudson and Delaware rivers. The English took control of the region from the Dutch in 1664. In 1676 the province was divided into East Jersey and West Jersey, the former going to Sir George Carteret and the latter to a group of Quakers. The division continued until 1702, when New Jersey was reunited as a royal colony under the governor of New York. In 1738 New Jersey became a separate colony with its own governor and assembly. Early in the American Revolution, the colonial forces won key battles at Trenton (1776), Princeton (1777), and Monmouth (1778). Princeton was twice the site of the national capital during periods of 1783 and 1784. New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1787. New Jersey can be divided into four parallel physiographic regions running northeast to southwest: (1) the rugged Ridge and Valley section of the northwest, where the Appalachians slice across the corner of the state; (2) the New England section, a southern extension of the ancient rocks of New England, to the southeast; (3) the rolling central Piedmont containing the industrial cities, the Hudson Palisades, and marshy meadowlands; and (4) the Coastal Plain, containing rich farmland, sandy beaches, dunes, marshes, and the Pine Barrens. The New Jersey climate is humid continental, with a marked difference in winter temperature between the northwest and southeast. In the north the average temperature in winter is 28 F (-2 C) and in summer, 70 F (21 C). In the south the average temperature in winter is 35 F (2 C) and in summer, 71 F (22 C). Precipitation averages range from 44 to more than 48 inches (1,120 to 1,220 mm) a year, with August being the wettest month. The growing season is about 150 days in the north and 200 days along the southern coast. Soil conditions throughout the state are well suited for agriculture, and most of the land not built on or covered by marshes or forest is farmed. New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country. The population is unequally distributed geographically; roughly three of every four Jerseyans live north of Trenton, and 60 percent within 30 miles (48 km) of New York City. Across the Hudson from New York City is the industrial sprawl of New Jersey's four largest citiesNewark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Elizabeth. Every day thousands of New Jersey commuters travel from suburban homes to jobs in New York City and Philadelphia. Statewide, 89 percent of the population lives in areas classified as urban, thus making New Jersey one of the most urbanized states of the United States. Italian-Americans constitute the state's largest ethnic group. About 13 percent of the state's population is black, and about 7 percent is Hispanic. The economy of New Jersey is based primarily on manufacturing, which employs about one-third of the work force. New Jersey's major manufactures are chemicals, in which it leads the nation, and electronic equipment. It holds high national ranking in the production of clothing, electrical machinery, toys, sporting goods, and stone, glass, and clay products. About 10 percent of the nation's research dollars are spent in New Jersey research facilities and laboratories. The resort industry, centred on the Atlantic shore, is also a major factor in the state's economy. Atlantic City, with its Boardwalk, fine old hotels, and gambling casinos, is one of the nation's largest year-round resorts and convention centres. Prosperous truck farms grow almost every kind of temperate-climate fruit and vegetable, but the spread of industry and housing is costing New Jersey much of its valuable farmland. The New Jersey transportation system is primarily a funnel for goods and people moving between New York City and points north and between Philadelphia, Delaware, and points south. Its freeways and turnpikes, railroads, and airports are among the busiest in the world. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bistate commission empowered to finance and operate transportation facilities in the New York City metropolitan area. It oversees airports, tunnels, bridges, piers and container terminals, commuter bus and rail lines, and truck terminals. A similar, but smaller, transit complex exists in the Camden area, linking the South Jersey area with Philadelphia. New Jersey, often regarded as a cultural adjunct of New York City and Philadelphia, has helped correct its reputation with the opening of the Garden State Arts Center and the Meadowlands sports complex. Museums, many operated in conjunction with historic sites or buildings, manifest rich cultural traditions focusing on the works of accomplished citizens such as Thomas Edison, Walt Whitman, and Woodrow Wilson. Major institutions include Rutgers and Princeton universities, as well as such institutions as the Institute for Advanced Study, the Educational Testing Service, and Bell Laboratories. Area 7,787 square miles (20,168 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 7,879,000. constituent state of the United States of America. One of the original 13 states, it is bounded by New York on the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean on the east and south, and Delaware and Pennsylvania on the west. The state was named for the island of Jersey in the English Channel. The capital is Trenton. Although it has major social, economic, and political force in its own right, New Jersey is often looked upon as a stepchild among the heavily industrialized and populated Eastern Seaboard states of the United States. Only four states in the nation have a smaller area than its 7,787 square miles (20,169 square kilometres), and only a few states have a larger population. Nonetheless, as a geographic entity and as a human collective, New Jersey suffers from a lack of identity among U.S. states. For the hundreds of thousands of its citizens who commute to New York and Pennsylvania, New Jersey is a vast bedroom state. Its transportation system, one of the busiest and most extensive in the world, is primarily a funnel for goods and people moving to New York City and other points north and to Philadelphia and Delaware and to points south. For hundreds of thousands of visitors it offers long stretches of fine beaches along the Atlantic Ocean, and the resort of Atlantic City may be better known than the state itself. Above all, New Jersey is rife with contradiction and anomaly. Its people fiercely fight off attempts of state government to end home rule by powerful municipal administrations, which have contributed heavily to the almost uniform depression and decay of its cities. Whereas it has produced some of the most able and respected U.S. governors in the 20th century, its local politics have often been astonishingly corrupt, and it has achieved notoriety as a major haven for organized crime. New Jersey is called the Garden State because it was famous for its fertility in the 18th century; it is now also among the most urbanized and crowded of states. The urban density of its northeast contrasts sharply, however, with the rugged hills of the northwest and with the enormous stretches of pine forest in the southeast and the rolling and lush horse country in the south central part of the state. New Jersey is an important industrial centre, but it has paid the price in environmental pollution, in dirt and noise, and in congested roads and slums. In sum, New Jersey is a curious amalgam of the urban and rural, the poor and wealthy, the progressive and backward, the parochial and cosmopolitan. Indeed, it is one of the most diverse states in the Union. Additional reading An excellent source of information about many aspects of New Jersey is Federal Writers' Project, New Jersey: A Guide to Its Present and Past (1939, reissued as WPA Guide to 1930s New Jersey, 1989); a new, revised edition is also available, edited by Lida Newberry (1977). Geography and geology are covered in detail by Charles H. Stansfield, Jr., New Jersey: A Geography (1983); Peter O. Wacker, Land and People: A Cultural Geography of Preindustrial New Jersey Origins and Settlement Patterns (1975); and Peter E. Wolfe, The Geology and Landscapes of New Jersey (1977). DeLorme Mapping Company, New Jersey Atlas & Gazetteer (1999), focuses on topography. The people, places, and events of New Jersey are featured in New Jersey Monthly.Historical treatments include Thomas Fleming, New Jersey (1977, reissued 1984); John E. Pomfret, Colonial New Jersey (1973); Richard P. McCormick, New Jersey from Colony to State, 16091789, rev. ed. (1981); and Larry R. Gerlach, Prologue to Independence: New Jersey in the Coming of the American Revolution (1976). Ongoing research is published in New Jersey History (quarterly). Peter O. Wacker The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica