The Gateway Region
Gateway Region, encompassing Hudson County, Essex County, Union County, Middlesex County, Bergen County, and Passaic County. As the “Gateway to Freedom” this region has become known the world over as the home of Liberty State Park and Ellis Island, the “new beginning” for millions of immigrants. The people of this historic and bustling region represent the myriad of cultures that are represented in the museums, the arts, the restaurants and the vibrancy of the cities and towns. You will always feel welcome in the Gateway Region.

Start your visit at Liberty State Park, in Jersey City, which overlooks the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and features the Historic Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal. There are acres of open park land to stroll along the Hudson River or have a quiet picnic. Then, you can expand your mind at the Liberty Science Center with the nation’s largest IMAX Dome Theatre.

Cultural diversity from art to artifact fills Tenafly’s African Art Museum, the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, and the Newark Museum. For a different display of beauty, Branch Brook Park with its cherry blossoms and the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in Upper Montclair should not be missed.

Cheer for your favorite team at the Meadowlands, whether it be for the NFL Jets or Giants; the NBA’s New Jersey Nets or the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. Don’t miss the thunderous action of the thoroughbreds at the Meadowlands Racetrack. In fact, the Meadowlands Complex is full of sports and entertainment, with restaurants, shopping centers and activities for everyone.

The Gateway Region also offers many unique shopping possibilities. In addition to malls and outlets, many towns offer traditional downtown shopping in places like Millburn, Montclair, Ridgewood, Summit, Westfield and Hoboken.

For evenings filled with music, laughter, drama and song, there’s Millburn’s renowned Paper Mill Playhouse, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, and Englewood’s John Harms Center for the Performing Arts. New Brunswick showcases entertainers from all over the world at the State Theater, and the award-winning George Street Playhouse keeps audiences applauding.

Newark
Newark is New Jersey’s largest urban center and America’s third oldest major city. It is located approximately five miles west of Manhattan and two miles north of Staten Island (both parts of New York City). Its location near the Atlantic Ocean on Newark Bay has helped make its port facility, Port Newark, the major container shipping port for New York Harbor. It is the home of Newark Liberty International Airport, which was the first major airport to serve the New York metro area.

With a population of over 275,000 neighborhoods are witnessing a boom of housing. Businesses are relocating and expanding. There is tremendous growth in private housing. For the first time in nearly 75 years, vast numbers of upscale private townhouses and condos are being built throughout the city. Attractive and affordable low-rise and low-income housing has been built by the New Community Corporation, and the Newark Housing Authority has started replacing its high-rise buildings of the 50’s and 60’s with more human-scale units.

Newark is also the state’s most diverse city. Here you will find communities flavored with people of numerous backgrounds, such as African-American, Latino, Brazilian, Ecuadorian, Haitian and the largest Portuguese population of any city in the United States. The city is divided into five political wards – North, South, East, West and Central – that together encompass 21 neighborhoods, each with its own unique character and combination of housing stock, stores, institutions and, of course, people. From the Ironbound section with its world-famous Portuguese restaurants to the charming Victorian homes in the Forest Hill section. From the fashionable Weequahic and Vailsburg neighborhoods to the brownstones of Lincoln Park, you can transition from the commercial hustle and bustle of downtown to the suburban Roseville section.

Jersey City
Jersey City lies on the west bank of the Hudson River across from New York City, and is part of the New York metropolitan area. With a population of over 240,000 it is the second largest city in New Jersey. It is the county seat of Hudson County. Jersey City consists of Six Districts or Wards; Greenville, West Side, Journal Square, The Heights, Downtown, and Bergen/Lafayette. Each of these Districts is comprised of smaller neighborhoods, for example the Paulus Hook Neighborhood of the Downtown District and the Western Slope Neighborhood of The Heights District. Jersey City is a city of neighborhoods, each with a different aesthetic and architectural style, to some degree.

Paterson
Paterson is located in Northern New Jersey approximately 30 miles west of New York City, has a population of 172,648 and is the third largest city in New Jersey. The industries developed in Paterson were powered by the 77-foot high Great Falls, and a system of water raceways that harnessed the power of the falls. The city began growing around the falls and until 1914 the mills were powered by the waterfalls. The district originally included dozens of mill buildings and other manufacturing structures associated with the textile industry and later, the firearms, silk, and railroad locomotive manufacturing industries. In the latter half of the 1800s, silk production became the dominant industry and formed the basis of Paterson’s most prosperous period, earning it the nickname Silk City. The biggest industries are now the small businesses because the factories have moved overseas. However the city still, attracts many immigrants. Many of these immigrants have revived the city’s economy especially through small businesses.

Elizabeth
Originally called Elizabethtown, named in honor of the wife of Sir George Carteret, was established on the banks of the Elizabeth River in 1665. Elizabethtown thrived with a population of 700 and the City was the first capital of New Jersey. The first major industry, the Singer Sewing Machine Company came to Elizabeth and employed as many as 2,000 people. Elizabeth grew in parallel to its sister city of Newark for many years.

The city has a population of 120,568, making it New Jersey’s fourth largest city. Today Elizabeth is home to the Bayway Refinery, a ConocoPhillips refining facility that helps supply petroleum-based products to the New York/New Jersey area, producing approximately 230,000 barrels per day.

Delaware River Region
Trenton is the capital of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. Trenton is an anchor city for the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Trenton and its immediate suburbs are often lumped together and referred to as “Greater Trenton” by locals.

The City of Trenton is home to numerous neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods. The main neighborhoods are taken from the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, and West) and are often the main identifying points for city residents. North Ward is an African American community that houses numerous important sites in this predominantly African American city and its history. South Ward is the most diverse neighborhood in Trenton and is home to many residents with Latin American, Italian, Polish and Irish ancestry as well as a sizable African American community. The Chambersburg neighborhood is contained within South Ward, and is noted in the region as a destination for its many Italian restaurants. East Ward is the smallest neighborhood in Trenton and is home to Trenton’s train station as well as Trenton Central High School. Recently, two campuses have been added, Trenton Central High School West and Trenton Central High School North, respectively, in those areas of the city. West Ward is the home of Trenton’s more affluent neighborhoods, including Hiltonia, Berkeley Square, and the area surrounding Cadwalader Park.

Experience history first hand at the Rankokus Indian Reservation in Rancocas, or in Lawnside, the state’s first African-American incorporated community. Tour the historic town of Batsto, a faithfully preserved 19th century town where craftspeople still live and work. Honor those who fought for liberty with a visit to the USS Battleship New Jersey at its new berth on the Camden Waterfront.

The Arts also reign supreme in the Delaware River Region. The Patriots Theater at the Trenton War Memorial echoes with concerts. Hamilton’s Grounds For Sculpture is a magical walk among stone, bronze, marble, steel, granite, concrete and wood forms, where live peacocks roam the grounds. Be entertained at Camden’s South Jersey Performing Arts Center and Princeton’s Tony Award-winning McCarter Theatre, host to drama, dance and music. Headline entertainment reigns supreme at the Tweeter Center on Camden’s waterfront.

Perhaps nowhere is the primeval majesty of nature more evident than within the one million acres of the legendary Pine Barrens, the largest tract of open space on the Mid-Atlantic coast and home to more than 1,000 species of plants and animals.

There’s more nature to discover at the New Jersey State Aquarium on the Camden Waterfront, with its 760,000-gallon open ocean tank. For more excitement, play ball with the Trenton Thunder or the Camden Riversharks. For hard-riding excitement, take the whole family to enjoy the daredevil events at Cowtown Rodeo in Pilesgrove, the largest weekly rodeo on the East Coast. Yah-hoo!

Here’s a region that really puts the “garden” in the Garden State. You’ll find dozens of “pick-your-own farms-fill a basket or two as you stroll among rows of sweet corn, blueberries, peaches or tomatoes, or experience 1900-era farming at the Howell Living Historical Farm in Titusville.

Skylands Region
The Skylands Region refers to an area in Northwest New Jersey that is part of the New York – New Jersey Highlands, near the borders with New York and Pennsylvania. The area features uplifted land and mountains that are elevated over much of the coastal plain of South Jersey and Central Jersey. The area includes Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Warren counties.

For over two centuries a prolific iron industry wielded huge influence over the development of the area. In particular, the forges, furnaces, and mines of Dover, Wharton and Boonton, all located along the banks of the Rockaway River, were intimately connected from the early 1700s through the heady times of the Morris Canal and the subsequent railroads.

Although some mines operated until the mid-1900s, New Jersey’s iron era began a frightening decline around 1876. The towns found ways to diversify into other manufacturing enterprises as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth. Some of the more successful of these ventures gave Dover, Wharton, and Boonton something to shout about and in some cases, world-wide celebrity.

About the time iron making was slowing down, silk production was gearing up. Paterson was home to several silk manufacturers, many of whom ultimately moved into Morris County. While Dover, Wharton and Boonton all began developing other industries, it was silk that provided the initial burst of activity, and silk that remained active well into the 1920s. Interestingly, while Port Oram and Boonton were closely tied through mining ventures, Dover and Port Oram ultimately became united through the silk industry with many plants moving from one town to the other over the years.

The region contains two national parks at its edges, 60,000 acres of state parkland, and a diverse and beautiful geography filled with lakes, rivers and picturesque hills dotted with farms. The region’s rustic nature is perfectly complemented by many vigorous towns and villages that offer wonderful entertainment, shopping and dining opportunities, fine museums, theaters and accommodations.

In the rolling hills of New Jersey’s Skylands, visitors can spy bald eagles, retrace Washington’s footsteps and soar in a hot air balloon all just a short drive away. Fairs and festivals are celebrated in quaint canal towns and in majestic fields. Be awestruck at the annual New Jersey Festival of Ballooning in July, when hundreds of colorful hot air balloons fill the sky. Excitement is the watchword in Lambertville, during April’s annual Shad Fest. There are also plenty of enchanting places for the young or young at heart at the Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Beemerville or the Land of Make Believe in Hope.

To be or not to be? That and many more questions-plus a few laughs-are raised in classic comedies and dramas at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival in Madison. Or catch a music festival at the restored 19th Century Waterloo Village, where you can also experience a historic grist mill, apothecary shop, and a 200-year-old way of life.

No visit to the Skylands would be complete without a visit to the Morristown National Historic Park, the site of George Washington’s headquarters in 1779-80, where his troops spent the bone-chilling winter of 1779 at Jockey Hollow.

If it’s the call of the wild you seek, you’ll never find it wilder than the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Kittatinny Mountains, or the Camp Taylor Campground in Columbia. Nearby, you can observe the natural habitat of wolves at the Lakota Wolf Preserve.

Some prefer to see the Skylands on their own power-hiking power. Wind your way through 50 miles of wilderness on the Sussex Branch and Paulinskill Valley trails in Sussex and Warren counties, or tackle part of the 70 miles of Appalachian Trail. You can watch winter turn to “winner” with perfect conditions for snowboarding, downhill or cross-country skiing at Mountain Creek, Hidden Valley and High Point State Park.

For an underground view, the Franklin Mineral Museum affords a unique subterranean perspective on its underground mine tour. Brilliant fluorescent minerals are on display in Ogdensburg’s Sterling Hill Mining Museum.

If exploring stores is more your style, Frenchtown and Chester offer lovely old-fashioned streets lined with antique stores and galleries, while Lambertville features eclectic art and antique galleries.
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